


Epoch

by JumpingInMuddlePuddles



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Author is a TommyInnit Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), BAMF Karl Jacobs, Bad Parent Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Bullshit Science, Everyone Comes Back, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Karl Jacobs-centric, Minor Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Near Death Experiences, Not Beta Read, Protective Karl Jacobs, Queerplatonic Relationships, Resurrected Wilbur Soot, Sapnap Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Sapnap-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Temporary Character Death, Time Travel, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, Winged TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), can be interpreted as platonic or romantic idgaf, dont worry, that’s not a tag and for what, the tommy comes later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29407794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JumpingInMuddlePuddles/pseuds/JumpingInMuddlePuddles
Summary: Epoch - An extended period of time characterized by a distinctive change or by a memorable series of events.Karl never meant for any of this to happen. He tried to bring Sapnap back in time so they could relax, get away from things. But he’s been thrown into a future he fears he is the catalyst for, and for every day the future worsens, Sapnap must fight his own demons while Karl looses himself to his thoughts. Allied with a revived Wilbur, a traumatised Tommy and a ‘reformed’ Dream, they must step up and change the future before it changes them.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity & Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Clay | Dream & Karl Jacobs, Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Karl Jacobs & TommyInnit, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59





	1. Joker

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO THERE
> 
> WELCOME TO MY TIME TRAVEL KARL FIC ENJOY UR STAY
> 
> a few things to bear in mind lmao
> 
> \- I’m writing this as the tales of the smp stories continue to be released so don’t expect it to be cannon compliant and my version of the inbetween and time travel may differe
> 
> \- interpret the karlnapity/ just karlnap however you want, i intended to write is as queer-platonic, but can be taken as romantic or platonic 
> 
> \- dream is a villain in this one, so all the triggers and content warnings that come with his character are here 
> 
> \- based on the characters in the rp rather than the ccs. i will take this down if it crosses any of their paths etc
> 
> (thanks to my friend spider for emotional support, and caz if i work up the courage to send this to you)
> 
> no warnings for this chapter - if you think of any please lemme know
> 
> If you see a typo suck it up i dont have a beta and will not be rereading this abomination
> 
> without further ado-

They told him that death was like a predator that waits for us in the fleeting moments between heartbeats. It prowls patiently, weaving its way through the rhythmic thumping in your chest, watching for the first glimpse of frailty that flickers the candle burning inside of us all. When the moment is right, it strikes, extinguishing the flame in the stillness of the lungs, devouring us, a lifetime of memories and thoughts and feelings just gone. There is no mercy, consuming without prejudice.

They told him, regardless of who he was, who he came to be, everything begins, and ends, with the mind. The body decays first, the brain stays conscious for a longer, awaiting a more pained death, slowly flickering out as it is destroyed by the animal, aware that it is losing its grip on reality, helpless to do anything but wait for the inevitable.

_The only problem is that he cannot remember who told him this._

It was coming back again, like a film on slow motion, except someone had hit the mute button. The silence made everything worse, it meant everything else was turned to full. There was the smell; of old tea bags and the glue that held book spines together and the metallic tinge of a pocket-watch.

The taste in his mouth; sugar, so harsh in its sweetness it made his head hurt, like he had inhaled some and it had gotten stuck in clumps behind his eyes, mixed with the taste of blood that had flooded his mouth and hid behind his tongue and left him gagging like _some sick dog-_

There was something in his pocket, he hadn't even realised he had regained feeling in his fingers until they had twitched sporadically, out of his control, and had contacted the texture that felt almost like dried skin. He wiggled them gently, trying to regain feeling. This felt like something he had done before, his mind did not immediately dart to panic, but a steady methodical method of something that had happened multiple times before.

His muscles were sore, twinging in protest every time he dared to jolt against them, like they were heavy chains that constricted his movements, pulling and tugging him back and forth. He gritted his teeth and forced his body to move. He didn't feel like himself, this body didn’t feel like his own. His brain was static and slow, groggy with sleep, but he couldn’t remember when he last closed his eyes.

Had he slept? He couldn’t even feel the bed beneath him. He must have fallen asleep, right? If he hadn’t, how had he got here, to wherever he was now?

He peeled his eyes open, choosing to ignore the bright burning light that made up his peripheral vision - blinding like the sun – like someone was shining a torch in his face- and instead, chose to squint against the brightness. He studied the piece of paper. It was crumpled, and yellow with age, but it had writing on it.

_You are Karl Jacobs. The year is 2021. You live in the Dream SMP._

Karl? Yes, that sounded vaguely familiar, like something he once heard in a dream, the only part of the vision he could remember, or perhaps some hallucination that he had experienced on the cusp of falling asleep, leaving him to only grasp at the last strands of his thoughts. He mouthed the name, not daring to use his vocal cords just yet. Karl, _Karl- Karl._

His eyes snapped open. A shaky intake of breath broke the silence that had lay heavy in the room as Karl sat up in bed. He ran a hand through his hair and down the side of his face. The cold seemed to be trying to sweep him up and into a hug, comforting in it’s quiet as invisible arms swept down his sides, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Karl liked the dark, where nothing could see him, and he could see nothing. Blissful ignorance.

It was as silent as death. The clamour of the rest of the SMP has long since passed, the laughter of drunkards disintegrating with the chill in the air. The shadows that encompassed a good half of the room that wasn’t bathed in moonlight seemed to twist and grow, and Karl rubbed his eyes harshly, so hard that he could see lights behind his eyelids, to get rid of the images.

_He had been forgetting again._

A terrifying thought that never properly leaves his conscious mind. It plagued him, lurked in the moments between any other real thoughts, followed him around like a ghost. These bouts of forgetfulness, of paralysed amnesia haunted him when he was at his most vulnerable, when he was sad, or exhausted or hurt. He would be stuck in that place - wherever it was - simply floating, existing, until his brain started working again and he was thrown back into the real world.

They were worse than nightmares because Karl knew they were real. There was always a strange sort of detachment that came with dreams, even nightmares, like something was wrong within the sleep dimension, and one was aware of that fact, but they would not pinpoint what the flaw was before waking. These were real. Karl remembered every second of him. Little pockets of time-space that seemed to just sit, trap Karl in there, idle to watch him as he regained feeling in his bones like some sick entertainment.

He guessed it was the price to pay for time travel. Every action has its equal opposite reaction. And this was his.

They were the only things he could remember with such a clear sight in his mind's eye, everything else was getting hazier, and these seizures - could he even call them that? - were getting worse and worse, he was forgetting more and more. He shuddered, pulling his blanket tighter around him. It had felt like longer this time, longer to regain his sense of self - longer to snap out of it-

_If Karl hadn’t had that paper-_

No, _stop_. He was spiralling again, down into a tunnel of what ifs and maybes that could choke him, they were so heavy with guilt and fear, snatching his breath before he could even inhale. He couldn't spiral, he couldn't dwell on perhaps or mights. He had to look here, and now.

_You are Karl Jacobs. The year is 2021. You are living in the Dream SMP._

He had been so tired the night before, so tired after jumping backwards in time - to a kingdom in a faraway land, many years ago, that he had jumped into bed without thinking about it. He had finished his diary entry of the event as fast as possible - faster than he should have - no doubt his scribbles were near illegible now. He could still remember a vague idea of what had happened in that time period - there had been a dragon - the ender dragon? It had been the same species, but there were more than one - and there had been someone with the surname of Minecraft - that had also struck Karl as odd. Anyway, he had been so tired he had written down what he could remember, closed the portal and fell into bed. 

He could write it down later. Right now the tremble in his hands was not getting any better by just sitting there in bed, and he felt raw. The paralysis had always shaken him - ever since it had begun - but now he was aware that it could be worsening, like a disease with no cure, the patient trapped as their body was destroyed from the inside out.

He slipped out of bed and pulled on his hoodie. He had watched his body do this same routine so many times before, from a distance, but something felt different, a new awareness beckoned his senses, each of his nerve endings stood on end, like they were waiting for danger or an attack of some kind, but his instincts were at ease. Time was a silent friend in instances like this, keeping him company and guiding him through the black slump that imprisoned his thoughts.

By the time he stumbled down the stairs to make breakfast, his fear and blinding panic had dulled to a blunt ache, a new morning lessoned the adrenaline’s grip even though the sun had yet to rise just yet. It was quiet, and he was mildly pleased with that fact, and he tried to relax with the patience of his silent, dutiful routine.

It was a little too quiet, Karl noted as he hurried back up the stairs to grab his pocket watch. He had not actually taken a moment to check what day it was. He looked down at his pocket watch.7th February. The words, written beneath the clock face, seemed to mock him in their cursive, staring straight back.

_The 7th? That meant he had been gone for 15 days._

Karl suddenly felt horribly, horribly wrong.

He could never really control which day he landed back in the SMP, but he always had a vague idea of what time, what date he should come back to, come home too. But 15 days? - that was a lot of hours in the SMP he had missed. He usually just tried to get back a couple of hours after he had left to time travel in the first place, so he did not miss anything. 15 days? His aim was getting worse.

Karl shook his head and tugged on his boots. Okay, so 15 days was quite a big leap, but it was fine, right? The SMP had remained mostly peaceful since everything had been blown up- a fact that Karl did not agree with - and he was sure nobody really minded that he had been gone for so long. Sapnap and Quackity were cool like that, and he hoped everyone else would just assume that he had a vacation.

So why did something hot and burning twist in his stomach? Karl took a breath, preparing himself for the worse - he wasn’t sure why - and pushed open his door.

He was met with a crisp breeze that lashed in his face. Karl took a moment to marvel in it, taking a fresh breath of air into his lungs that helped calm his racing heart. His large, thick hoodie protected him from the bite of the wind. It was kind of refreshing. He turned back to lock his door, closing it tightly behind him - he couldn't risk anyone getting to his books - and hearing the lock twist with a click.

His house - more like a cabin - built into the side of the hill, resided on the border between L’Manberg and the Greater SMP. It was nice to be able to switch between the factions. Karl had never really cared about sides, but the fact that he was welcome in both Nations, not to mention his near-permanent bedroom in Quackity’s place over in El Rapids, he could stay anywhere he pleased. It was nice; to feel included. It didn't happen very often in the past, it made him feel warm.

A deep, heavy feeling, cold like dread and yet burning under his skin set in, and Karl blinked against the sky. The sun hadn't even risen yet, the sky was a dark grey, stabs of sleety blue sitting in pockets against the clouds. His breath caught in his throat and Karl couldn't help but fight the rising instinct that twisted painfully inside his gut that something was horribly, horribly wrong.

Karl made up his mind, set his jaw. He should go and visit Quackity.

He was forgetting again, he knew that he might completely forget his friends one day, and that thought terrified him beyond belief. He needed to see them, familiarize himself with the curve of Quackity’s jaw and the flash of George’s hoodie, the flick of Sam’s green hair. He would not forget them, he could not forget them. Slipping down the edge of the cliff in which his house-come-library was buried, Karl followed the path Punz had carved into the ground for him and into the Greater SMP.

Quackity was where he always was at times like this, moping around at the bottom of the town hall, leaning against one of the large marble pillars, a cigarette sat snugly between his lips. The sky was stained a dark grey, thick and overcast in the mid-morning gloom. A dark feeling settled across Karl’s shoulders, heavy, and he wondered if the rest of the SMP could feel it too. Dread.

Big Q didn't look up as Karl approached, glancing at him through his dark eyelashes and continuing to study the ground like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

Karl bunched his hands into the folds of his hoodie, with a weak smile. Like that would make any difference, like his laughter could do any good. “Hi.” He was just relieved that he had seen someone, someone real. It felt like centuries since he had last seen Quackity’s face. Any familiar face.

Quackity took the cigarette from his lips and threw it onto the ground, smashing his boot into it with a hiss. Karl flinched. “Where have you been?” Quackity said gruffly, lips twisted into something akin to displeasure, like he had tasted something nasty. “You were gone for like 2 weeks.”

Karl’s heart panged. “I.. I got caught up. I’m sorry, Big Q, I really am, but I got pulled into Time again, and I got stuck, and I misjudged the leap back, and...-” The explanation slid from his lips too fast, words slurring together in Karl’s hurried attempt to fix things. He cut himself off, rocking from foot to foot helpless.

Quackity didn't look impressed, dark eyes coming up to glare at him with an edge of poison that almost stung. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

Karl felt his gut lurch with something cold. Did he know? No, of course he didn’t know. How could he know? _\- He didn't know, right?_ Sure, he knew that Karl time-travelled, but he didn't know about the severe side effects that sometimes appeared. If he knew, Karl was sure he would never let him travel.

“Forgot what?” He forced out thickly.

Quackity studied him for a moment, before sighing. He brought his hand up to massage his skull. He looked exhausted. “Las Vegas.” He said tiredly. “You were going to come along and have a look, yeah? Me and Sapnap waited for you.”

Karl swallowed. God, he felt awful. Quackity had been talking about his casinos, his banks, for weeks, and Karl had just forgotten, swept off of his feet in the dreams and fuzzy curiosity that came along with Time Travel.

He breathed a sigh. “Big Q…” He opened his mouth to say something, anything, that might try to fix things. That's what Karl did, he fixed things, he saved people, he rescued and he protected and he fixed. His tongue felt too big in his mouth, and Karl’s face was aflame. “I-”

Quackity cut him off again, this time yanking the front of Karl’s hoodie forward and pulling him into a tight hug. “I thought you died.” Quackity mumbled thickly into his shoulder. “You usually tell me when you're about to jump through time, but this time I got nothing. Radio silence. Jesus Christ, Karl, you halved my life span with stress alone.”

He let out a choked sob that blended with a laugh, bubbling up his throat like soda. He dug his fingers into Quackity’s jacket. He was here, he was alive... Time travel got a little lonely sometimes, and the comatose state he fell into when he forgot everything was incredibly isolating. But Quackity was here, he could feel his heartbeat against Karl’s own chest, he could almost feel the blood rushing through his arteries if he tried hard enough, could feel the blinking of his wet lashes against Karl’s jaw.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. You're here now.”

“I'm here now.” Karl repeated. Quackity smelt like clementines and pine trees and fabric softener.

They remained like that for a couple of minutes, completely comfortable, just admiring the life of the other, the tingles between them whenever bare skin touched bare skin. Karl could have fallen asleep there, encompassed in the warm embrace. It couldn't have been more than 2 weeks since Quackity hugged him goodbye, but he had been trapped through time for a solid three weeks. He had witnessed a baby princess’ coronation, was there for the first ever dragon to be slayed, but had gotten lost on the return to the present, jumping through time, all the more frantic until finally he had found his way back to the Inbetween and made the jump.

The terror, the helplessness of time travelling, frantically trying to remember where he was and where he was going, that tightness in his chest that had followed him since he had woken up seemed to melt a little, the fist that clutched his heart unfurled a little.

Quackity was the one who drew back eventually, Karl’s arms burned with the cold and at the loss of contact, but he said nothing. Quackity smiled at him, his face a little less tense, a little more forgiving. Softer.

“What have I missed since I was away?” Karl asked lightly. His tone was teasing, aimed as a joke, but the way a sour look spread across Quackity’s face gave Karl the thick feeling that something had gone wrong.

Quackity didn't say anything.

“Big Q?”

“Dream’s in prison.” He blurted suddenly, before his eyes went wide as if he realised what he had just said.

Karl craned his neck forward. _“...What?”_

“He’s in prison.” Quackity took a breath, as if to regain his composure and looked back up at Karl with something akin to a small, sly smile. “Tommy and Tubbo went to fight him about a week ago, the rest of us came in and saved them when Punz admitted what Dream’s plans were. They were pretty grim if you ask me.” He murmured as an afterthought. His breath caught on a breeze and the smell of tobacco was whisked into Karl’s face. He winced.

Karl swallowed drily. Okay, he could deal with this. He’d had more severe dumps of information before, this wasn't anything new. He had missed Doomsday and he was absent for the festival. This was fine. He had dealt with worse.

“Wow.” Karl said finally, blinking. Quackity offered him a weak grin, pulling him forward so they both sat on the marble steps up to the front entrance to the inauguration building. The cold of the stone seemed to seep through Karl’s trousers, but he couldn't find it in himself to care.

“Yeah. George’s pretty torn up about it.” Quackity said, squinting up at the sky. “You know, after Sapnap moved away to live with us, I think this was the final straw.”

Sapnap. That was a name that felt rather foriegn on Karl’s tongue, almost a spell he dared not utter. He flipped it around in his mind, trying to memorise the shape of the letters, mouthing them but not frankly speaking them. Sapnap. He hadn't heard that name in ages, like it was taboo _. James, Mason_ ; _Drew and Cleetus_ \- Or perhaps it was just his stupid memory problems again.

_You are Karl Jacobs. It is 2021. You are living in the Dream SMP._

Who was Sapnap? He didn't dare ask Quackity, but he seemed familiar, a memory, a person who was sitting on the tip of his tongue, hiding behind his eyes. The glow of golden eyes and deep chuffing laugh whizzed through Karl’s brain. He grabbed onto the threads of the thought and pulled it back. Sapnap, oh right, Sapnap. His fiancé.

A wave of mortification swept through him, so fast it nearly toppled him over. Karl’s skin burned with shame. He had almost forgotten Sapnap, the person he was closest to on the SMP, the first face he had seen when he joined the server. He gripped Quackity’s hand. If it was too tight, Quackity didn't say anything.

_You are Karl Jacobs. The year is 2021. You are living in the Dream SMP._

Karl saw him studying him from the corner of his eye. “I-...” Quackity began. “I’m sorry. I know it’s kind of a lot to take in.”

Karl rubbed his head. “I can handle it. Not your fault.” He mumbled, swinging his legs up and down over the steps. “Did anything else happen whilst I was away?”

Quackity paused where he was fiddling with the zipper on his jacket. He glanced at Karl, lips pressed into a thin line. “How much do you know about the Egg?” He asked hesitantly.

_The Egg_? Flashes of red and black curling vines, sweeping up and down the room like veins swarmed Karl’s mind, his nose was suddenly filled with the smell of rotting flesh and something metallic that almost had him gagging again, burning the back of his throat. _The Egg. Sir Billium, Drew, the murders, that butler, James-_

“A little.” Karl choked out. Quackity’s brow creased with concern. He grabbed Karl’s hand with his own, rubbing his thumbs against his pale knuckles. They were bruised; busted and scabbed from time travel when he had gotten into a nasty fight with a royal guard whilst escaping a palace. Quackity didn't mention it.

“Well,” Quackity began again, slower this time. More hesitant, like he was afraid that if he were too harsh Karl would shatter. He might. “Its bloodvines have been growing throughout the SMP. More and more people are aligning themselves with it,” He started to list people off with his hand. “Ponk, Punz, Skeppy, Bad, Purpled… It’s really creepy. Sam told me it was like mind control or some shit.”

“Oh, Ender,” Karl breathed.

Now would be the time where Quackity cracked a joke, broke the tension, and they would melt back into their usual relaxed fashion. Karl ached for Quackity to say something, anything, that would stop the horrible pit of dread that grew large in his stomach. He was quiet. Quackity was really worried about this.

“Yeah.” Quackity said finally, forcing a chuckle. “I think they’re trying to kill Tommy, for some reason too. I don't really know. Those weirdos keep trying to get me to have a sleepover with it, or something. It’s really freaky.”

Karl’s heart seized in his chest. He grabbed Quackity’s hand. “Quackity, do not go near the egg. Don't touch it, don't stay near it for too long, and don't harm the bloodvines. That’ll just make it mad.” Karl surprised himself with the seriousness of his tone. Then again, this wasn't something that was taken lightly. “Promise me you won’t go near it. Promise me, Quackity.”

Big Q wrenched himself from Karl’s grip. “Okay, okay. I won't, jeez, chill out.” He laughed, but there was something in his eyes that was different, like Karl’s intensity truly had shaken him. He massaged his hand, pale indents where Karl had grabbed him. A slither of guilt wiggled its way down Karl’s spine.

He had encountered the Egg many a time throughout history, always in different places, affecting different people, hurting different areas. It was like a disease that was sweeping across history. Karl had thought that the SMP was safe, but he had been wrong. Karl took a shuddering breath and clambered to his feet.

_He needed to fix things._

Quackity must have recognised the look in his eye, as he sighed and also stood up. “Go talk to Sam and Puffy, they’ll be able to tell you more, okay? And visit Sapnap. He’ll be glad to see you.”

Karl nodded.

Quackity’s lips crept up into a fragile smile. “Be safe, man.”

_You are Karl Jacobs. It is 2021. He is living in the Dream SMP._

…

When Karl saw Sapnap, he was being followed up the path by Antforst, who’s dark magenta eyes were dark with malice, and something else, something hazier. Panic seized in Karl’s chest. He jumped over the bench he had been walking past and swept over to Sapnap.

“Karl?” Sapnap asked when he caught sight of him.

“Shush.” Karl hissed, grabbing the sleeve of his hoodie to pull him behind the nearest tree. Karl peeked his head out past the trunk, watching Ant walk past them down the path, eyes narrowed with a singular determination. Karl wondered if he had even seen them in the first place.

Sapnap blinked angry orange eyes down at him. “What the fuck, Karl?” He asked incredulously, but he did not step away. “Not even a hello?”

Karl’s stern expression immediately softened. “Hello.” He said lamely.

He reached out and clasped Sapnap’s hand in his own. His clammy, cold palms burned against Sapnap’s warm skin. Sapnap was always warm. That was what being a blaze hybrid did to him. Karl reached out his other hand and brushed the dark hair from Sapnap’s eyes. He was so pleased when Sapnap did not flinch away. He could fix it. This was still mendable.

“Quackity told me you were back.” Sap said quietly. His face looked guarded, unhappy. He didn't meet Karl’s gaze. Probably about Karl’s time away. That was okay. Karl deserved it. “Since when?”

“This morning.” Karl replied, just as quietly. He studied Sapnap’s face harder, trying to memorise the shapes and the curves and the angles into an ever-present picture in his mind’s eye. In hopes of never forgetting him again. He dint think he could handle it again. “I’m sorry. I came to look for you.”

Sapnap chuckled, the sound ringing like windchimes in Karl’s ears. “I’m glad.” He looked at Karl like he was gazing deep into his soul, noticing every insecurity. His hands crept up to wrap around Karl as the two sank into a heavy embrace.

This was different from Quackity’s hug. Quackity’s embrace was light, like he thought Karl was fragile, and he was afraid that gripping him too hard would break him. Sapnap’s embrace was warm. He held on just a little too tightly like if he let go Karl might vanish again, like he was holding Karl together. In a way, he was. Karl didn't want him to stop hugging him. He smelt like hazelnuts and smoke and rain.

It was nice. The way they could just slip back into some sort of expected normalcy. It was stable, and Karl appreciated it. A warm feeling flooded his chest like sweet honey.

Sapnap pulled back first, placing both of his hands on Karl’s shoulders like they were heavyweights. “I missed you.” Sapnap admitted, his face growing a burning red. “A lot of shit happened while you were gone, man.”

Karl’s heart squeezed painfully in his chest. He placed his hand over Sapnap’s. “I’m here now, yeah.” He swallowed. “I heard what happened with Dream. Sap, I’m so sorry…” He trailed off.

Sapnap huffed, sweeping his free hand through his hair. “He had it coming. It’s fine.” Though it certainly wasn't fine, not if the bunch of his shoulders and the sour expression on his face told Karl differently. Dream had been his best friend. Karl couldn't imagine someone whipping around and almost destroying the server for power after knowing them for years. It must have been devastating.

They remained in a comfortable silence for a while, Karl was satisfied just being in the other’s presence. Sapnap blinked, stepping back. A branch brushed the back of his head and he jolted forward.

“Mind reminding me why we’re behind a tree, again?” He said, sarcasm dripping from his words as he batted the branch back with just a little too much hostility. Karl chuckled.

“I, well, I saw Ant coming up the path behind you and I panicked. I heard about how weird everyone has been acting, and his eyes have gone all weird. I thought he might have attacked you. Sorry.”

Sapnap peaked out from behind the trees, eyes scanning the horizon, before he deemed it safe enough to step out fully into the sun. “Tell me about it.” He said as Karl also appeared from behind the wide trunk. “The whole Egg thing is creepy. I had to move my entire house.”

Karl’s eyes flicked up. He fiddled with the cuff of his jacket. “Have you touched it? Has it spoken to you?” He asked, hesitant.

Sapnap snorted, scratching the back of his head. His eyes glittered with mischief. “Uh, not without a hazmat suit on. I did try to blow it up, though.” He pressed his lips into a thin line to conceal his smile. “Bad isn't very happy with me.”

Karl guffawed, before exploding with shocked, relieved laughter. “You did what?”

Sapnap rolled his eyes. “It was a heat of the moment type thing. The Egg doesn’t like me.”

Karl couldn’t figure out if that was better or wors, danger-wise. Obviously, he didn’t want anyone to get brainwashed, but not having the Egg hunt you down was a pretty safe option. “Have you touched it before?” Karl tried to keep his tone light, but it was obvious he was tense. Karl needed to keep everyone safe, keep everyone he could safe.

Sapnap winced. “Yeah.” His eyes grew a shade darker, more haunted. He furrowed his brow and Karl clasped their hands tightly together. Sapnap jolted, eyes flicking up to Karl, and he relaxed slightly.

“It was whispering to me. Saying some pretty gross things. About you, about Gogy and Big Q… it freaked me out.” He wet his lips, before murmuring quietly. “It said things like Dream used to.”

“Sapnap…” Karl trailed off, throat tightening. He didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t the first time he realised how out of his depth Karl was. He knew about Dream, he knew all about Gogy and Sapnap and their experiences with the man, but it had slipped his mind. With his jumps through time, he was losing his grasp on the real world, on the people around him.

He had missed Gogy’s coronation, Quackity’s Las Vegas tour, he hadn’t been around for Sapnap, when he had fought Technoblade. Ender, did Karl feel awful.

Sapnap heavily blinked a few times, wiping a hand over his eyes a few times before straightening. He cleared his throat. Karl wished Sapnap didn’t feel like he had to hide things from him, he was just stuck just as the helpless audience. He didn’t know what to do. He had been away for so long; he wasn’t worth their trust.

“It’s fine. I’m fine.”

Was he though? Karl didn’t push it, nodding and taking a step back. He tried to study Sapnap’s face again, but his moment of vulnerability was gone, his face pressed into emotionlessness again.

“Do you wanna take a walk with me?” Karl asked, a little quieter. He held out his hand, a taunt that he thought Sapnap would not rise to. After all, there was no need for contact now, their desperate grasping at each other seemed embarrassing now. To his surprise, Sapnap grinned and slapped his hand into Karl’s, watching as his cheeks flamed a bright red.

“Lead the way.” He teased.

And so they did. Karl took lead down the Prime Path, admiring the sun as it beat down mercilessly upon them, being careful to slow down and avoid the Egg’s curling tendrils.

This was nice, Karl marvelled. When it was just him and Sapnap, the sky a cloudless blue, and when his hoodie felt particularly soft against his arms, there was not a care shared between them. With every breath, Karl just felt so there. In the moment, living in the present without knowing what will happen or what has happened.

_I am Karl Jacobs. The year is 2021. I am living in the Dream SMP._

“We should change the name of the SMP.” Karl said mildly when they reached the top of the path, pausing to look out over the lands, where jutting buildings pierced the clouds, and the greys and browns of wood and stone could be seen like stabs of colour across the grass.

“Yeah?”

“Dream’s in jail, yeah? He’s not in control anymore. We should change the name.”

Sapnap snorted. “Thinking back, he was a bit of a dictator, wasn’t he?”

Karl hummed in agreement, and he felt Sapnap’s grip on his hand tighten a little. He blinked across at the other, who’s arm was shading his eyes from the beating sunbeams.

“How do you do it?” He asked finally. Sapnap’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t stop admiring the landscape.

“Do what?”

“Keep going.” Said Karl, shifting his weight slightly as he edged closer. “You just keep moving forward, keep climbing no matter what life throws at you. I don't know how you have the willpower. I certainly don’t.”

Sapnap took a moment, eyes flicking across to stare at the little pyramid that signaifed El Rapids’ freedom. Thinking back, that was a petty thing to do, wasn’t it? Karl thought. They wanted to retaliate against Dream in their own way, take their own stand. Dream probably only allowed El Rapids’ independence to keep Sapnap busy. That stung to think about.

But L’Manberg was gone now, El Rapids was useless. It was where Karl proposed. Something hot lodged in his throat.

“I don’t know, either.” Sapnap admitted softly. “I guess you just gotta keep going, or you’re gonna stop. And if you stop, everyone else will leave you behind, and I can’t be alone again.”

“You have me.” Karl said softly, giving Sapnap’s hand a squeeze. It was warm, encompassing. The fingers were calloused, worn down and waxy from his use of his violin (or his crossbow). “You have me, and Quackity, and George, Sam and Tommy and Punz; Sapnap there are so many people who care about you.”

There was another lull in conversation. Sapnap pressed his lips into a line, eyes cast down. “How do you handle it?” He asked.

Karl suppressed his smile. “Time Travel.”

Sapnap arched a brow.

Karl shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know… it’s nice to jump through time and just be able to forget about my worries, drop everything that’s been weighing me down. I feel like I’m someone else, momentarily, i’m the audience in a show rather than an actor. It’s a relief, really.”

“That sounds nice.” Sapnap said hazily. “I’d like to try it at some point.”

You can. Oh Ender, Sapnap. I could show you so much. We could see as much or as little as you would like, I could take you to the ends of the universe if you so required. You can understand what I see, live like I do. You could be just like me.

You can’t. Oh Ender, Sapnap. I would never put you through that, the unadulterated hell of being pulled through time, disassembled and then pieced back together, the pain of forgetting who you are over and over. I won’t let you be like me.

“Maybe.” Karl offered him a chargrin smile.

You are Karl Jacobs. The year is 2021. You are living on the Dream SMP.


	2. Four of Spades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl and Sapnap clear out his library with the threat of the bloodvines looming. They receive a few visitors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayy you stuck around for chapter two POGG
> 
> no content warnings for this chapter, just some minor threats

Pages and books would preserve history, is what they said. Keep it safe and hidden and locked away in thin, translucent paper, with every flick of ink against ivory, staining the page permanently and trapping a second of history with every letter. It could withstand age if treated correctly, unlike minds, that could twist and bend stories they configure on the tongue, shaping them until they reached human satisfaction. 

But instead the paper would yellow and the ink would fade but it could be transferred into a new book and it could live on. The heartbeat would remain steady, there would stand no difference between eager students and wise professors, just those searching for more. Countless fingers and curious eyes and seeking minds could drink in the knowledge, page through the sentences until their minds were full, and then pass it round, content to carry the pages through time. 

The library was stacked full of interesting artefacts. Furniture of all shapes, sizes and designs balanced precariously on top of each other from floor to ceiling, leaving a maze of narrow paths, that meandered throughout. 

There was a musty smell hanging in the air of the shop, the kind of smell you only get from aged wood, trying to be suppressed by a weak lavender scent, and it would've been deathly silent, if not for the mismatched ticking of clocks, hidden amongst the debris of antique curiosities. 

Sapnap licked his finger and flicked over a page in the book he had picked up, the spine creased with age as Sapnap leant against the wall. A candle flickered and the sharp shadows that cut across his face jittered. Karl pulled up another box of books.

“Are you going to help, at all?” He huffed, dragging his sleeve across his face to wipe away the sweat. 

Sapnap blinked at him over the top of the book. He had the audacity to look surprised. “I am helping.”

“Are you? Because that just looks like an excuse to make me do all the work.” He complained, toeing the line between offended and amused. 

Sapnap quirked his eyebrows, snapping the book shut with one hand before placing it down on the arm of a faded blue armchair. 

He took extra special care hopping over a section of ceramic plates, decoratively painted, and glass vases fashioned in fragile poses. He landed in front of Karl, arms outstretched as he dumped another cardboard box full of books into his arms. 

“This is heavy.” Sapnap complained loudly, but dutifully marched his way over to the entrance of Karl’s library and placed the box down with more care than Karl had anticipated, tucking his fingers underneath so it did not make noise. “How many books do you have?” 

Karl glanced around, arching his back from where he sat crouched beside a large bookshelf. His spine ached from the strain of constant exertion. 

“This is the first floor. There are two more, bear in mind this is where I keep most of my junk. We don’t need to transfer all of it.” 

Sapnap muttered something under his breath, before making his way through the maze of antiques and picking up his book again.

“You’re an incredible writer.” He murmured. 

Karl felt a thrum of warmth trill through him. “Yeah?”

“This one is really good. It’s about this battle between two Queens over this magical holy land. Did you write it?” He held it up.

Karl shook his head fondly. “Oh, that one wasn’t me. That was my grandmother’s. She used to read me her travels as bedtime stories.” _So she wouldn’t forget them_. Karl thought, pressing his lips together. 

Sapnap raised an eyebrow. “You come from a family of time travellers?”

Karl sat forward on his knees and nodded vigorously. “Oh, yes. Apparently, there’s something about us Jacobs’ that makes it easier for us to time travel. As far back as I can remember. I’ve always been expected to travel. I guess it’s sort of a part of me now.”

Sapnap nodded, looking satisfied enough as he nosedived back into his book. Karl sighed through his nose and grabbed another book to toss into his boxes. 

This was just a temporary movement, but Karl had known that he needed to move his library ever since he had travelled back to The Masquerade, when he had first met the Inbetween. That felt like an age ago. 

The bloodvines had been spreading. When Sapnap had walked Karl back to his house, they had both paused when they had seen the twisting red tendrils, half raised like they had been moving a moment before, mere feet from the front of Karl’s library, he knew he couldn’t put it off any longer. 

His fingers itched with the urge to get all his books out as quick as he could, to leave, to protect his history, conserve time- 

He recognised this book. It was one of his. Small, and leather bound and worn at the edges, by sure enough his chicken-scratch handwriting engraved into the cover. Karl’s breath caught in his throat. 

He thought this had burnt. 

Set alight, blown to smithereens in the second L’Manberg blast - Wilbur’s demise. He had never found it in the wreckage. But it was here, tucked neatly away and taunting him with its plainness. 

He traced the edge, over the bumps of the pages, before flipping it open. This book contained some of his first travels, if he remembered correctly, some he vaguely remembered, some he must have forgotten. He was quiet for a moment, clutching the book tightly as though he was unboxing trapped memories, the faded past, with his delicate hands. 

A fond, nostalgic smile fluttered onto his face when Karl flicked through the pages, watching as his handwriting progressed into neater cursive as he grew older, ink-colour and the size of the quills altering as a reminder of all the time he had spent pouring his memories into this little diary. 

His aunt had been the one to gift him the book, pressing it into the seven year old’s tiny palms, a mischievous glint in her eye and promises of greatness spilling from her lips. 

A certain page caught his eye, the writing inside bold, underlined heavily multiple times, in red ink. 

_If you forget, your name is Karl. Find the man with the white bandana. He will help you._

He checked the date at the top of the page. Sure enough, this was the day he joined the SMP. Karl’s cheeks flamed red. White bandana - Sapnap. God, that was embarrassing. He had known Sapnap for less than a day at that point and was already willing to dump all of his shit on him. 

But another part of him, deeper inside, felt warm at the notion, just how fast Sapnap and him had bonded, and even now he believed that statement to be true. Sapnap would help him. 

Karl dropped the book inside his cardboard box and hefted it up as he got to his feet. He surveyed his progress. A good portion of the bookshelf had been cleared out, either tossed to the side, or placed in boxes by the door. It would take them a few trips to clear out the library completely, but Karl didn’t mind. It felt good to be doing something, something productive. Every book he cleared felt like a new gust of fresh air. 

“Hey, Sapnap?” Karl asked once he had cleared the entire bookshelf, a mountain of books resting at his feet. “Can you place these into those boxes? I’ll start downstairs.” 

Sapnap nodded, with less complaint this time, as he crouched beside Karl and picked up another diary. He glanced up; orange eyes almost glowing in the late afternoon candlelight. Karl couldn't help but study his face. He seemed less stressed now than he did earlier, his face a little slacker, a little lighter. Karl wondered vaguely if asking if Sapnap wanted a massage was too far. Probably.

“You’ve time travelled a lot.” Sapnap huffed as he looked out across the book pile. 

“How many generations do these things go back?” The genuine curiosity in his voice is palpable, enough to capture Karl’s entire attention in a snap of his eyes. He meets fire, the sharp bite of a blaze, embers that hiss and spit. 

Karl needed to learn how to breathe again, his throat tight. He shrugged. “I don't actually know. The oldest one I’ve read was my great, great grandfather’s, but there are more than I didn’t take with me when I moved into the SMP.” 

Sapnap made a noise of content, he almost looked impressed. Karl turned away, heart thumping so loud in his chest he thought Sapnap might hear it. His cheeks were flaming hot. Karl mumbled something, and quickly clambered down the ladder and into the lower floor. 

… 

It had been about half an hour, Karl had settled into an easy routine of unloading boxes by the ladder, piling more into boxes and repeating his body on autopilot. It was nice. He didn't have to think about anything at all, a million thoughts raced through his mind, rendered harmless as they swept past him, so Karl was unable to ponder them too long, not to delve beneath the surface and turn them malicious. 

Trawling through the remnants of daydreams of when he was still in one piece, preparing for the future. He missed those days, Karl thinks, he missed the normalcy, the routine. 

It was different to his lapses into amnesia, those pockets of time and space where there was nothing, he was nothing. There was no static in his brain. Karl was completely in control, solidified in this belief by the stomping of Sapnap’s boots against the wooden floorboards above him and his murmured singing that swam down the ladder to greet Karl’s ears. He could hardly see down here, the room only lit by the warm glow of a single candle - more than one would be a fire hazard - but Karl didn't mind. 

Karl did not wish for a lot; he did not seek out treasure or attend grand parties or use his family’s wealth to exploit and acquire whatever he wanted. Karl was not like that. He was content to sit, with the few people he could keep safe, and simply exist, peacefully. In this server, however, peace was a delicate, rare thing. 

Karl was jolted from his thoughts when a thud echoed above him, dust sprinkling from the ceiling like snow. He got to his feet. A thick silence stretched out across the room. He couldn't hear the clocks ticking from down here. 

“Sapnap? Are you okay?” Karl called, the words hanging in the air long after he had uttered them. “Sapnap?” He hopped over a stray box and glanced up the ladder. 

_The man with the white bandana. He will help you._

There was a thick silence, suddenly broken by a bout of barking, loud laughter, wheezing and hacking and so unlike Sapnap, but he didn’t recognise who it was. It immediately put him on edge. “It’s fine.” Sapnap’s strangled reply returned. “I just got spooked, okay? You didn’t scare me.” Irritation laced his tone – was he talking to someone else?

Karl gripped the first rung on the ladder that sagged with age and weight and pulled himself up one by one. He felt his heart rate ease a little in relief. “Scared by what?”

There was a moment of silence as Karl clambered his way back up the ladder, poking his head into the new floor, before pulling himself up into a sitting position. 

Tommy stood above Sapnap, sword raised to his throat, but a grin resting upon his young features. He looked up at Karl and his mischievous smile turned softer. He lowered the sword and offered Sapnap a hand up.

“Scared by me, like a pussy. Hello Karl Jacobs.”

“Tommy,” Karl said as he arched a brow. “Good to see you. What are you doing in my library?” 

Tommy shrugged, then bared his teeth at Sapnap as the latter snatched his diamond sword back. “I heard you were around, came to say hi and shit.”

Karl studied his face, checking for signs of, well, The Egg. His face was flushed with nervous excitement and his eyes were blue as ever. Karl released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. He must have attacked Sapnap as a joke. He was a kid, after all. There didn’t have to be malicious intentions behind every mistake.

The rest of the tension drained from Karl’s shoulder as he smiled back at Tommy. “How are you?” 

Tommy rolled his eyes. His red wings fluttered a little behind him, the feathers ruffled, but clean. Better taken care of than Karl had seen them in a while. Something warm blossomed like hot chocolate in his chest. “I’m doing fucking great. I’m always doing great.” He leant against a vase, that teetered under his elbow, and Karl winced. 

“Is that why you attacked Sapnap?” Karl asked once Sapnap clasped Tommy’s wrist and guided him away from the porcelain. 

“Obviously.”

Sapnap exchanged an unimpressed glance with Karl. They turned back to Tommy, who turned a little red under the attention. He cleared his throat.

“Have you guys seen Sam? I’m looking for him, and he wasn’t down by the construction site.”

Karl perked up. “What construction site?”

Tommy’s smile widened and he pushed out his chest like some sort of pleased cockerel, even his wings puffing a little. “I’m building a hotel, with Sam helping me, He’s my _employee_. I want everyone to come and visit on its grand opening day. It’s gonna be so fucking cool.” 

Karl felt fondness flicker like a candle in his chest. He had never really been close to Tommy, especially during the wars, but Karl had tinkered with time a couple of moments that coincidentally saved the kid’s life on multiple occasions. He remembered the kid’s laugh, before all of the war, the disaster, and it’s nice to see him grin again. 

Not that Karl would tell anyone he ha been messing with time. Over his dead body. If the rest of the server found out, there would be hell to pay, but Christ, if Dream found out; Karl didn’t want to think about what would happen. Nothing good on his end. He suppressed a shudder. 

Yeah, no. It would remain his little secret for now. 

“You want everyone to come and visit? That’s a lot of people.” Sapnap said mildly, gently drawing Karl from his thoughts. 

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Well, obviously not _everyone_. If those Egg-Cultists even come close I will stab ‘em and shit.”

“Fair enough.” Said Karl, getting to his feet. He was glad that, as far as he knew, Tommy had allied himself against the Egg. It put him in danger, a target on his head, yes, but the kid had been through enough. Mind control was not something he was trying to dump on top of Tommy’s ever-growing trauma pile. 

“We’ll be sure to come.”

Tommy’s eyes grew almost impossibly wide. “You will?” His tone was quieter now, and he drew himself up and backwards like he was expecting them to go back on their word. Untrusting eyes flicked between them.

“Of course.” Karl said eagerly. “And if we forget, feel free to come and kick Sapnap’s door down. Right?” He sent a look in Sapnap’s direction, who just sighed and massaged one of his temples. 

Sapnap huffed. “Fine. But no actual violence. You can throw shit but please don’t burn my house down. And don’t attack me in my sleep.”

_The man with the white bandana. He will help you._

Tommy squawked like he was outraged, heavy brows bringing his whole face down as he spluttered. “I-I would never!”

“Yeah, and I’m the Ender Dragon.”

Karl rolled his eyes, but a spark of affection broke free in his chest. Tommy’s excitement was contagious; the kid was just so goddamn determined, so full of energy and life no matter what fate threw at him. It was impressive, almost admirable, if the kid wasn’t also only 16 years old. 

“...I’ve never seen you and the Ender Dragon in the same room, so-“

Sapnap smacked him over the head with a book. Karl winced as the force of the blow shook some of the china plates that sat to his right. He steadied them with his hand. 

“Fine, fine! Okay! I won’t burn down your stupid house!” 

“Promise?” Karl reached across and offered his pinky up. 

Tommy rolled his eyes. He mumbled something about being too old for pinky- promises, before letting out a sigh of exasperation and clasped his pinky in Karl’s. “I promise.” They shook once. 

Sapnap made eye contact with Karl, and the time-traveller blushed an embarrassed pink. 

…

  
  


It was later when their next visitors arrived. The pair had finished removing all the books, and Sapnap - after flexing about his strength - had been forced to load all of the boxes onto a carriage, pulled by one of his horses. 

Karl handed him another box, with a. cheeky grin, before turning back to the doorway and picking up another. The sun had set just a while ago, and the sky was dark and star-less, covered by a blanket of thin cloud. It was not cold, per-say, but it wasn’t exactly warm, either. Karl’s fingertips had grown cold, pink and numb but the rest of him was swathed in his thick hoodie.

Exhaustion tugged heavily on his eyes, but he ignored it, passing another box across like he was on a production line. He had slept plenty throughout his travels through time, - he had not, after all those sleepless nights running from bandits and stressing about who he was - he couldn’t waste more of Sapnap’s company by telling him to go away and come back again tomorrow. Besides, Sapnap wasn’t a bother, Sapnap would never be a bother. If anything, it was Kal that was the annoying one. 

He took a breath and lent heavily against the stone wall for a moment, taking a minute to just stand and breathe. He rolled his shoulders back in circles to try and quell the tenderness that was growing between his shoulder blades. Being bent over all day carrying heavy stuff was not doing wonders for his back.

Tommy had left a while ago, when Karl insisted they get back to work, the kid had blanched at the idea of manual labour, and scampered out of the shop, yelling about something or over about his hotel and Sam in his loud exit. 

“You okay?” Sapnap asked, turning and realising there was not another box waiting. “I get if you’re tired. We can do this another time if you want.” 

“No, no, no.” Karl said hurriedly, turning to face him with wide purple eyes. “It’s fine. I’m fine. I wouldn’t want to waste your time.”

Sapnap recoiled as if he had been struck. _Oh, shit._ “Karl, you’re not wasting my time-“ He cut himself off and jerked his head up, confusion and hurt melting from his face as he glanced around, like a wary animal hiding from a poacher. 

He must have found what he was looking for, eyes going wide as he stared up the hill in which Karl’s library was tucked into. 

“Get inside.” He said breathlessly, voice low. “Get inside and close the door, now, Karl.”

There was something desperate about his tone, the way he spoke, that Karl felt fear grab hold of his throat, almost choking him, but he did as instructed, slipping inside and closing the large spruce door behind him, careful to close it gently so it would not rattle. 

_White bandana. Help._

He stood in the dark for a moment, haltingly trying to understand the sudden change in attitude, before dropping to his hands and knees and crawling towards the window. 

“Sapnap! How have you been?” 

Karl’s grip on a wooden floorboard tightened. He knew that voice, pitched a little higher and laced with something sickly sweet, that it immediately set him on edge but Bad was Bad. 

He peeked over the top, through the pane, seeing a flash of white and black material - almost silk - and a flicker of beige fur. Bad and Ant. 

_Shit._

Karl had to fight growing nausea as he saw Bad swing an arm around Sapnap with a familiarity that made his skin itch. Sapnap was as stiff as a board, something uncomfortable drawn over his face. Dread rose in Karl’s stomach. 

Sapnap looked so pale, Karl just wanted to rush out there like some sort of prince and whisk him away. But he didn't, the certain edge in Sapnap’s voice made his legs go jelly with apprehension, and he remained wedged behind the window. 

“Hi, Bad,” His voice was somewhat muffled through the glass, but he could still make it out, his voice and the wavering uncertainty inside it. “‘M good.” There was a falseness to his tone, so obvious it was laughable, or perhaps Karl had just gotten good at reading him. Sapnap had never been a great liar, though. 

Bad let out a hum of discontent, as though he wasn't satisfied with Sapnpa’s answer. Karln tended to forget that Bad was technically Sapnap’s father, but he forgot a lot of things, if he was honest with himself. It was weird. Karl hadn’t joined the server long before the egg had begun its… _infestation_. 

Bad was really creepy, in every way. He was so happy, always had that grin on his face, so wide it was disconcerting, like the smile was trying to split his face in half. He might have been a good dad, once upon a time. At a time where his hugs were not trapping and aggressive, but calm and gentle, and his laughter was not mocking but sweet and open. But his mannerisms seemed as though they had spilled over the top in his attempts to seem like he was the same. Karl had seen it happen many times, seen the poison that the egg seemed to spread across the universe, through space and time like they were mere seconds and metres, not great stretches of centuries and lightyears. He would be damned if he let it happen again, not to his friends, his people. 

Something deep and primal within him itched to run, to take Sapnap and sprint across the server. But where would they go? As far as Karl could tell and off what Quackity had told him, those damned bloodvines covered most of the server..

“Are you sure, Sappy? You look absolutely awful.” Bad cooed with a sickening sweetness. Karl flicked over the edge of the window again. Bad was just so handsy. He guessed it must have been his love language or something, but with the corruption it left him with grasping hands and tightening arms with a strength that did not seem natural. His arm constricted around Sapnap’s waist. 

“I said I’m fine.” Sapnap said sternly, ripping himself away from Bad and standing across from him, shielding the door with his body. 

Karl’s heart leapt to his throat, hands clammy and cold like death as he ducked his head back down. The cold wall seeped through his jumper, and a heavy, freezing ache set in on his bones. He just concentrated on getting his lungs to work again, and he didn’t know _why he was so scared._

“What do you want?” Sapnap said slowly with hostility that was not unwarranted. His hand went towards his belt, looking for his blade on instinct. Karl saw his hand tighten, and his eyes wandered to the diamond sword resting almost harmlessly among the clocks, mocking him with its apparent innocence. 

Ant rolled his pink eyes to the sky but was quiet. His presence was threatening enough. Bad tutted the way a patent would when stern with a child. It scared Karl, a little. The twisted caring that radiated from this guy. Everything just felt so _wrong_ about him. 

Karl clasps his hand around the pocket watch that hangs heavy around his neck. It doesn’t even make noise, but vibrates a little with every tick of its hands. _Karl doesn’t want to end up like Drew and James. What’s worse, he doesn’t want to end up like Sir Billiam._

Bad’s finger edged down the tip of his blade, teasingly. If he pressed hard enough along the diamond-soaked edge, it could cut him. It’s reflection wobbled in the half-light of the lantern that hung from Karl’s porch. “Have you seen Karl by any chance?” 

A beat of silence. It felt like an eternity. 

“No.” Sapnap’s voice was surprisingly steady. “I don't think he has returned from time-travelling, yet.”

“Huh.” Came Bad’s chirpy reply. There was a tonal shift in the air, it turned darker, Karl gripped the stone wall so hard his fingers turned white. “That’s funny, because I could have sworn, I saw him speaking with Quackity earlier.”

Another pause. Karl pressed a hand to his face. It was stupid, but he was worried that Ant could hear him breathing, or perhaps the shuddering thump of his heartbeat. 

“That was me.” Said Sapnap. “I wear his hoodies sometimes, and from far away our hair kinda looks the same.”

“Cute.” Bad replied, but from the sharpness of his tone, how he was starting to get impatient, it was obvious that he found it anything but cute. 

They settled into a tense silence. Karl turned and knelt on his hands and knees, crawling over to Sapnap’s sword, careful to remain under the line of the window, before grabbing it and scrambling backwards. He clutched the scabbard to his chest like it was a lifeline. 

“Since he’s not here, you can leave.” Sapnap said shortly. “Promptly fuck off.”

Bad made a noise, almost like he was offended. He tittered condescendingly. “What happened to us, Sapnap?” He said. Karl’s skin crawled. “I am your father. We were so close.”

“You’re not my anything.” Sapnap replied. He tried to keep his words loose, casual, but there was something like hurt, maybe venom that seeped into his voice that made it raw. The words sounded foreign on his tongue. 

“Oh, you wound me. Come now, Sapnap; I raised you, don’t you feel love towards your good ol’ dad?”

“No.” Sapnap sounded strangled. Karl could guess the look on his face, hesitant, his brows drawn together, something wary tugging down at his lips. “I don’t care about you. What you’ve become.”

“I found happiness!” Bad said, exasperated. “I found content with The Egg, we all did. Don’t you want to give it a chance? Or are you afraid?”

For a second, Karl went cold with fear, he grasped the top of the scabbard. He would fight if he had to. He wasn’t very good, but he would risk it for Sapnap. He was willing to expose himself to the Egg’s rasping hums and promises of nothing, filling his brain with static, to protect Sapnap. 

But Sapnap did not rise to Bad’s unspoken challenge. 

The man with the white bandana. He will help you. 

“No.” He said firmly, dictating the end of the conversation. “No. Go away, Bad. Go stroke your Egg or pray to it or feed it fucking eyeballs or whatever it is that you do.”

Ant made a jerk as if to leap at Sapnap, but Bad grabbed his shoulder. His misty-white eyes were narrowed, every jerky move of his limbs foretold his anger. Like he was constraining himself.

“Okay, fine.” Bad said sweetly. It left something that tasted bad on Karl’s tongue. “Fine. Let’s go, Ant.”

And to Karl’s surprise, they did actually retreat. Just when Karl was about to get to his feet, Bad turned and called; ‘Goodbye Sappy, bye Karl!’. His voice rolled over the hill and hit Karl dead centre. He didn’t move. 

Bad had known. _He knew. He knew. He knew._ He knew the whole time. This must have been like a game to him, being the cat teasing the mice with hope before snatching them up and gobbling them whole. _Just like Billiam-_

Sapnap’s warm hands grabbing at the front of his hoodie jolted Karl from his thoughts, and he took a gasp like he was breaking his head through cold water. 

“-Arl? Karl? They’ve gone now, they’ve gone away. Are you alright?”

Karl got up into his knees and wrapped his arms tightly around him, letting the sword slip onto the floor. He grasped at the back of Sapnap’s shirt, curling his fingers into the fabric, spinning little knots. 

“Yes.” Karl cursed the way his voice shook. “Yes, I’m okay.”

Sapnap released a breath with a relieved chuckle. “That’s good. For a second there, I thought they were gonna force their way inside.”

Karl felt small. “I know.” 

The darker haired man drew back, studying Karl’s face. He cocked his head. “I wouldn’t have let them hurt you.” He said earnestly. 

“I wouldn’t let them hurt you either.” Karl blinked. 

A wave of pink spread across Sapnap’s face. He spluttered for a moment, before rubbing his sleeve over his face. Karl chuckled, and when he looked back up, the blush was gone. But Karl saw it. A prickle of pride bubbled in his chest. _Ha, I did that._

Sapnap got to his feet. He offered Karl a hand up. “C’mon, we should get these books out of here. The longer we stay, the more chance that they might come back.”

Karl set his jaw, grasping Sapnap’s hand and getting to his feet. He wordlessly grabbed the sheath and handed it to Sapnap, before picking up a box and walking through the semi-opened door, a cool draft wafting into his dusty room. 

This wasn’t goodbye, he reminded himself as he pushed the box onto the back of the carriage. He could return to his cubbyhole of memories later, when there was less threat of the bloodvines. That was also a problem for Future-Karl to deal with. 

Sapnap strung a protective arm around Karl as they headed away from the library, books jostling in the back. Karl leant into his warmth. He smelt nice. 

_The man with the white bandana. He will help you._

Yes. Karl had made the right decision. 


	3. Seven of Clubs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl finds a way to pull multiple people through time. Sapnap prepares, but neither of them really know what they're doing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HIYA 
> 
> welcome back laddies, this chapter gets shit going so my apologies if the first two chapters were slow. i realised that i cant just write cute self-reflection character studies and actually do some plot so i blurted this out lmfao  
> speedran this chapter so sorry if it is shit. 
> 
> checkov’s gun gets loaded in this chap so look out for that also :)
> 
> dialogue? hA! my characters communicate through ~prolonged eye contact~  
> 
> 
> warnings - uhh just like drowning but its not really drowning at the end idk man it gets phycological

One of Karl’s most distant memories was hazy; he remembered the stickiness of melted popsicles that trickled onto his fingers and the feeling of sun cream that lingered on his skin throughout those hot days in his village, and the smell of flowers, but he didn’t remember the architecture, the faces of its inhabitants. It got blurry when he tried to focus on the details. He was kind of glad. 

A dancing bear came to town when Karl was maybe four or five years old. Children would gather around the ringmaster, begging for a peak behind heavy metal bars that contained it. They would toss coins at the man and he would gaily agree to show the creature off. It would stand on its back legs and wander about in the town centre - if it dared to stop - a hot poker would be pressed to its back as encouragement for it to continue.

It would have been passed around through the crowds, much to the audience’s delight. And when it was done, it would be chained to the ground as the tinker went around and collected more money in his top hat. Karl often had wondered what the creature might have done if it realised the only thing standing between it and freedom was a ten-inch stake held loosely in the ground. 

Karl had been glad to leave that place behind him. He had left when he was sixteen and he had not looked back. Karl had joined a Hypixel Arena as a manager inside and that’s where he had met Dream.

Sometimes he looked around and saw people just like that bear - prisoners in their own mind. His fingers twitched. He sat head down, slumped on a small spoon-back chair. He was curled over his book. A warm light, from above, cast a spotlight around him and the bare stone floor. Despite the appearance of the old wooden chair, the knobs that made up the spine dug into his back, he felt comfortable and strangely at peace.

He traced the spine of his book, over the indents in the leather, before resting it on his lap. Living was Sapnap was different. It wasn't bad, but Karl had to adapt himself to Sapnap’s odd sense of routine. He was all over the place, but Karl had fallen into an almost comforting sense of normality. The pair had even built him a new library out in the outskirts of the SMP, sometimes being joined by Quackity or George as Sapnap built and Karl collected resources and they just existed next to each other, in this time that felt so secluded and away from all the stress that came with the rest of the server. It was like time travel, but with another person. That was nice.

He stood up and peered through his selection of books, slotting the one he had originally taken out back into its slot in the corner of the shelf. Time travel. He had thought about it a lot lately. His fits of isolated amnesia, yes, and how the Egg seemed to spread throughout the multiple timelines Karl had visited so suddenly, but also another thought occupied a large part of his brain. Was it possible to time travel with someone else?

It would be incredibly dangerous, Karl had scoured his ancestor’s books and there had been nothing about bringing someone through time, let alone a there and back trip. But Karl couldn't help but yearn. Just for a few days, maybe a week, to bring Sapnap and perhaps Quackity through time, to show them the wonders that had become his every-day and bring them to little corners of the galaxy where nothing could bother them. It was a dream that kept him up late at night. 

There was this place he knew that would be perfect for one such event; he had written it down in such fine detail in his writings that it might have been impossible to forget about it, or at least it was enough for his imagination to patch up the holes where his mind was lacking. That was what Karl was how, a patchwork quilt of ideas and emotions and memories, some not entirety his own, some he crafted from hand, some handed down to him and some borrowed from friends.

It was a tower Karl had found on one of his adventures, on the edge of an SMP he did not remember in a time that seemed both outlandish and nostalgic. It resided on the edge of a cliff, right next to a small waterfall, surrounded on every side by fields after fields of flowers of every color and trees that bore plump peaches and ripe oranges. It was nowhere, nowhere important. 

A little pocket of time that Karl had shielded from the rest of the world, crafted and protected with his worn hands, one that he had shaped into his own. It would have been perfect. Like it could have been the honeymoon Karl had never had. When he closed his eyes, Karl could almost see that sky, remaining for an eternity at a constant sunset, skies stained across with oranges and pinks and light blues, like water colour that had smeared and was not yet quite dry, Sometimes, if the time was right, stars would peak through the brightness and twinkle like little frosty snowflakes. It was beautiful. 

Karl wanted to share his world with someone. 

The room was warm with ambience, the multitude of lanterns burning throughout the library, hanging from the ceiling in clumps almost like tiny makeshift chandeliers. This place was near perfect. It lacked Karl’s regular organised chaos, and he couldn't help the homesickness that grew in his throaty sometimes when he thought about his library, or how it was probably overrun with bloodvines by now, but it was nice. 

It nearly always smelt like smoke, and little black scorch marks were a constant against the spruce floor, Sapnap did not have a regular sleep schedule, but when he did, he would bundle himself up in blankets to try and replicate the heat of the nether. It was frankly adorable, and with every half hour or so, Sapnap would drop by with another cup of jasmine tea, the fruity taste was a constant on his tongue. It was wonderful, but it wasn't home. Even now Karl felt the dull itch under his skin, an ever-present reminder that this wasn't him. He couldn't just live in one place forever. That wasn't him. His soul yearned for something more, reaching out to grasp at the strands of time to try and fill that void, the instinctual need for travel. 

But Karl couldn't leave Sapnap. Not right now, not after all he had been through. Could he really take him with him? Surely it was possible. What was the difference between Karl making the leap than Sapnap? He didn't want to forget again, and what if someone was there to remind him of whom he was and to experience all Karl did and help him recall the events to take note of inside his books? 

He could be an ever-present light at the end of Karl’s tunnel. Was that selfish of him, to want to bring someone through time with him? He was just so lonely sometimes, his mind rushed to reassure him, and besides, he would only do it once or twice. He didn't want Karl to experience the amnesia and mind-numbing despair that came with time-travel. 

There were plenty of books that Karl had not read yet, so he kept searching. He wanted to give Sapnap the choice, one way or the other.

In the end, it was not Karl that brought it up in conversation. It was Sapnap.

“How does time travel work?” He said suddenly over dinner a few nights later. Karl looked up from his potato and rabbit stew in surprise. Sapnap’s eyes looked tired, and he ducked his head, poking at the meat with his fork. He pushed his feet back onto the floor, so his chair balanced on the back two legs, and teetered forward so it looked like he was about to end up face first in his soup. 

Karl sat back. “It's more complicated than it seems.” He admitted, staring hard down at his potatoes like they had done something to personally offend him. “It’s all to do with time, manner and space. You must think of time not as one linear line, but as raindrops falling all around you, in which you can choose where you want to go. You can't force yourself through it, but let it take you where you want to go, like a river or something. The universe is cool like that.”

Sapnap nodded, and was quiet for a moment, as if taking a second to ponder over what Karl had said. He rubbed a hand through his long black hair, allowing Karl to study him for a heartbeat.

“Do you think it's possible for someone random to travel through time? Someone who isn't, like, a Jacob?” Karl had never heard him sound this nervous before, perhaps apart from and not including when Karl had proposed. When he got nervous, Sapnap ducked his head, and scratched his neck and wouldn't make eye contact. It was sort of endearing.

Karl shook his head. “I don't think so. I mean, it certainly _isn't impossible_ , but you have to possess a certain,” He waved his hand around in the air, like he was searching for the word and hoped to pick it out of the air directly. “ _Fluidity_. I know of others who have tried, but none that I am aware of have succeeded.” 

Sapnap nodded, pressing his lips into a line. He seemed to deflate slightly, and Karl wondered if he had gotten smaller, hunched in, like he was embarrassed. _Fuck it_.

“But,” Karl began haltingly. Sapnap peeked at him through his eyebrows. “It might be possible for me to bring someone through time.” _What am i doing, oh Ender, there was no reason to get his hopes up like that, he's going to hate me if i don't figure it out-_

“Really?”

“Maybe. I'm still figuring it out.” He swallowed drily, choking his words out like his tongue was swollen and too big in his mouth. He took a shaky breath “If you were given the option, do you think you would ever like to time travel with me?” He said, before getting hit with a wall of relief that he didn't stutter, as his ears flamed red. Before Sapnap could even begin to calibrate a response, Karl was tripping over his words again. “It's totally cool if you don't want to- I mean, it's gonna be dangerous and I don't even know if it would work, and, and-” 

“ _Karl,_ ” Sapnap said sternly, and Karl’s jaw immediately snapped shut. “That sounds fucking awesome.”

Karl’s muscles tried to go slack, but Karl gripped the side of his chair, fingers going white. He was determined to keep himself upright, but relief filled his chest. He let a small smile bloom across his face. “Yeah?”

“Yeah!” Sapnap said vigorously. “I mean, I’ve heard all of your stories, and it sounds like the coolest thing ever. To be honest, it would be nice to get away from the SMP for a few days.”

“We could always just leave the server, you know. Take a vacation from the madness.” Karl said quietly. “We don’t have to time travel.”

Sapnap suddenly looked torn. “I know, but I sort of helped found this server, and I couldn't leave everyone else hanging like that, especially George. And this way, we could spend like a week back in time and it would return like, after an hour.” 

Sapnap’s excitement was contagious. Karl found himself grinning ear to ear like an idiot, but he couldn't find it within himself to care. “Totally! That's why time-travel is the best!”

“Imagine all the bragging rights I will get when I next see George; anyone, to be frank. They’d be so jealous.”

“I haven’t figured out how to do it just yet,” Karl warned. “It might not work, and it could be dangerous.”

Sapnap scratched the back of his head. “Honestly; you could have a two out of three chance of success and I would still like to try.” He smiled. “And if i like, get stuck in time, or whatever, you could just come get me.”

“Or I could leave you there.” Karl replied drily. 

Sapnap didn’t look impressed as he loaded a chunk of potato onto his fork and flung it at Karl like it was a sling shot. It landed in the middle of his hoodie - it wasn’t technically Karl’s hoodie, it was Quackity’s - but he had been wearing it. Karl gaped at him, a mix of shock and anger. Sapnap met his gaze and began piling another pile of vegetable onto the fork. 

Karl flipped his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, you win! I’m sorry! I promise not to leave you stuck in time. I’ll save you, no matter what.”

Sapnap rolled his eyes, bringing his hand to his forehead and leaning back. “My knight in shining armour.” He said drily. Karl scoffed, only a little offended. 

“You’ll be more grateful when I save your ass from a hoard of man-eating leopard and spider mutants.”

Sapnap’s eyes went wide. “Are those real things?”

Karl nodded, a flicker of pride dancing in his chest as Sapnap watched him with something almost like awe in his firefly eyes. He was impressed. “Yup. Weren’t the finest to deal with.” He gestures to the meal. “Now, eat up! You’re gonna need your strength if I figure this time travel thing out.”

Sapnap dutifully began shovelling the food into his mouths, and Karl hid his smile as excitement and nervousness began to drum against his chest like a gong. 

  
  


…

  
  


he In-Between wasn’t as all-knowing as it appeared to be. Sure, most of the time it had pulled Karl through time when he was ready, depositing him wherever it wanted, but Karl’s father had taught him to carve his way through time by himself. When he really willed, he could fight against the tidal wave of space, push himself to where he wanted to go. 

Karl stared down at the book; mouth agape. He had found it. The answer. 

The blood roared in his ears as he looked down numbly at the book, so old it might crumble if handled with nothing but the utmost care, the pages translucent and yellowed with age, if a little dusty. 

He blinked once, twice, swallowed against his sandpaper throat, then sprang into action. Snapping the book closed, Karl scrambled towards the staircase, fluffy socks slipping against the wood, that did not help his wobbly ankles. He dived down the stairs, across the room and burst through the doors.

“Sapnap!” His eyes landed on the other man, who stood with his back to him as he placed scaffolding up his next building plan. “Sapnap!” He repeated, more exaggeration in his voice this time. 

Sapnap turned just in time for Karl to hurdle into his arms and shove the book into his face. “I found it, I found it!”

“You found it?” Sapnap echoed, pushing the book down from his face. Karl grinned.

“I know how we can time travel together.” 

Realisation dawned on Sapnap’s angular face, and he exploded into emotion like a totem of undying. “Holy shit!” He wrapped his arms around Karl by the waist and spun him about. Karl shrieked and clutched the back of his shirt. 

Sapnap let him go again and the two were laughing, so hard they couldn’t breathe, Karl muffled his giggles with his sleeve, knees weak and slightly dizzy. There was some sort of hazy euphoria between them, like the information hadn’t settled in and they were sitting somewhere between imagination and reality. 

“Can we really? And you’d let me come with you?”

Karl chuffed. “Of course.” He said. “I have the perfect place. We could totally do it, like, now.” He linked their hands. 

Something ignited in Karl’s chest. It took him a moment to place it as longing; a deep, burning desire that consumes him from the inside out. It was familiar, like a brand of magic he hasn’t used in years, but he wasn’t ignorant enough to believe it as that. 

_Was he really going to risk Sapnap’s life for a moment in time; a honeymoon, before plunging them back into the present? What if it didn’t even work?_

But, if living with Sapnap had told him anything, it was that he was both selfless and reckless to the point of destruction; if he wanted something, he would get it, even if he had to break all his bones along the way.

He studied their hands. Karl’s fingers were bony and long, soft and littered with paper cuts, Sapnap’s were slender and wiry, calloused and rough. Each had a litter of burn scars, and his skin was a little darker, but they were both people; born the same, and will meet the same end. Is there any difference aside from origin and scars?

Was there any real reason Karl could time travel where Sapnap couldn’t? It would be wrong to deprive him of the choice. If Sapnap wanted to, he should be allowed to time travel, despite the risks, yes? 

Sapnap squeezed his fingers. “Thanks.” He said, and it was probably the sincerest thing Karl will get on the matter. 

Karl let go of him and held the book tighter. “Pack a bag.” He teased. “We could go right now.” 

Sapnap arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah. Are you underestimating me or something?”

“I would never.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” 

  
  


…

  
  
  


“Where are you going?” 

Sapnap’s sword slipped out of its sheath, bared and sharp before he turned his head. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the sharp contrast of the dark room and the early evening, but when he saw a shock of a blue hoodie and a crown, he scoffed and slid it back. “Haven’t you got better things to do than stalk me?” 

“Yeah, I do.” George pushed off the stone wall and squinted against the dark. “But you’re stealing from my supplies again.”

“You’re not the king anymore. This stuff is technically anyone’s,” Sapnap replied with level dryness, stepping down onto the first step of the winding staircase, throwing him a glare over his shoulder. “I have something important to attend to.” 

All George had to do was sweep his eyes down slowly, taking in the satchel strung over his shoulder and the thick hoodie he pulled on over his shirt. It made Sapnap’s blood boil. “Right. And that’s why you’re packing your bags like you’re about to flee the server.”

“Is there a point to all this, or are you here to bother me?”

When George didn’t respond, Sapnap continued down the stairs, from one polished slab of stone to the next.

“ _Are_ you planning to flee the server?” George asked with a certain softness as Sapnap passed him. It made him pause, turning to look down at the slightly smaller man. 

Sapnap swallowed. “No. Me and Karl are just going on a hunting trip for a few days. Nothing serious, Quackity’s not even coming.” The lie slipped too easily through his mouth, leaving a bad taste on his tongue. Ender, lying to George made him feel _awful._

George seemed to notice, too, lips pressed into a displeased line and something hot wrenched in Sapnap’s gut. 

“I won’t just abandon you, George.” Sapnap said, but George’s face twisted, and his expression was suddenly unreadable through those large, white-rimmed glasses. “I won’t.” He insisted. “We’ve been through enough.”

George let out a shaky breath; Sapnap thought he was looking at him, but it was rather hard to tell. 

“Right.” George said finally. 

“Trust me.” Sapnap said. 

George nodded mutely, looking forward, into the dark, and that was all Sapnap could do. 

  
  
  


…

  
  
  


“Are we good to go?” Sapnap stuffed his hands into his hoodie, rocking back and forth on his heels as Karl made his final checks. His backpack hung heavy on his shoulders, but it didn’t possess anything more than a change of clothes, some food, and his weapons. 

Karl’s fingers intricately fiddled with his pocket watch, with a delicacy that Sapnap thought only came with time. He reminded Sapnap of the autopilot he used when setting an arrow into his quiver and drawing the bow. 

Karl flicked the little cage to his left. The cricket inside chirped loudly in protest. 

He spun and looked at Sapnap with that stupid smile, teetering the line somewhere between endearing and silly, the large goggles on the top of his head repeatedly slipping down into his fringe.

Karl had also changed out of his hoodie, into a white turtleneck and a colourful patchwork coat that fell to his knees and twirled around his knees. Sapnap thought it looked a little goofy, but he didn’t say anything. 

Karl’s large purple eyes flicked up, before he looked back down at his pocket watch, flicking the glass gently. He nodded firmly. “Yes.” 

Karl picked up the cricket. It was a failsafe, a control experiment, before Karl and Sapnap would actually attempt to travel. Excitement glimmered in his eyes; the same anticipation thrummed under Sapnap’s skin.

“If you feel like you’re in danger, or at risk, come back straight away.” He had repeated this phrase multiple times through Karl’s preparation process, but it didn’t hurt to insist one more time. This was Karl’s world, his levels of expertise, Sapnap couldn’t protect him, he wasn’t the one in control here. 

Karl scoffed. “Duh.” His nervous eyes flicked up to Sapnap’s unimpressed face, and he stood straighter. “I mean, of course. Don’t worry, I’ve done this so many times.” Something dark and almost vulnerable flashed across his round face for just a second, but before Sapnap could speak up about it, the expression was gone, and Karl perked up again. 

“So, uh, you bringing the book?” He asked, eyeing the leather-bound thing. 

Karl held it to his chest. “Yeah. It holds my notes, and stuff, reminders and the time stamp so I can return to exactly this moment.” 

“Oh.” That was kind of smart. Maybe Sapnap should have done something like that. Would he even need to? With Karl here? Better be safe than sorry. 

“See ya in a second!” He grinned, pulling the goggles down over his face; then there was a flash, and Sapnap wasn’t quite sure how to describe what happened next. It was sort of like Karl just got _absorbed._ Sucked into thin air like something invisible had swallowed him whole in the blink of an eye. It put Sapnap on edge. That was not what he was expecting.

The room was quiet now, without the mumbles or metallic tinkering of Karl’s last minute gadget check. Sapnap pulled out his own notebook, and wrote the date, and any additional information he might need. He didn’t know why; it wasn’t like he was going to die or forget his memory completely or anything. 

_It’s February 6th._ He wrote messily. _You are Sapnap. You are time travelling with Karl Jacobs. He will get you home._ Snapping the book shut, he slid it back into his bag, and all that was left for them to do was wait. 

He didn’t have to wait long, a couple more minutes sat in silence, swinging his legs back and forth on the table he leant on, and then he saw the flash again, bright and white like a sparkler, and then Karl was there; like the universe had vomited him back out. 

Sapnap leapt to his feet and scrambled forward to help Karl up. He looked tired, eyes closed, but he was breathing, and there was the ghost of a smile present on his lips. He gripped Sapnap’s shoulders, taking shuddering breaths to regain his control before his eyes fluttered open. 

“Did it work?” He rasped. They both turned towards the cricket cage that had been discarded on the ground. It chirped loudly back at them like it sensed their eyes on it. 

It had survived time travel. Karl had travelled with another thing and came out relatively unscathed.

“Yes.” Sapnap said breathlessly. He tried to not let his exhilaration get the better of him, they still had to pass a few more tests. Sapnap turned back to Karl, his eyes seemed to sag with exhaustion. “Do you want to stop? We can continue another day if you’re tired-“

“No.” Karl interrupted. When they made eye contact again, his heliotrope eyes were firm. “I want to do this now.”

Sapnap took a heaving breath, but who was he to object? This was Karl’s area of expertise after all. He shrugged, om letting go and allowing Karl to stand on his own again. He grabbed the glass of water and handed it across. He didn’t notice the way Karl’s hands shook. 

“If you’re sure…” He trailed off. 

Karl gritted his teeth. “I am.” Without another word, he turned so that Sapnap couldn’t look at his face anymore and picked up the cat. He paused for a moment to press his face into it’s fur, and the thing blinked across at Sapnap, unimpressed. 

“And you’re sure we’re not going to kill the cat accidentally.”

Karl snorted. “Yeah, duh! Body and genetics don’t make a difference as you travel through time- i could travel with a fly or a polar bear and it wouldn’t make a difference, as it’s all about the conscious mind. This is just another test run.”

“That’s George’s cat.” Sapnap advised. “If she dies it’ll kill you.” 

“She won’t die, I know what I’m doing.” Karl repeated, before grinning. “I’ll be back in a minute.” 

And, before even giving Sapnap a chance to reply, the buzzing filled the room again, accompanied by a bright flash, and Karl was gone. 

This time, Sapnap only had to wait a few moments before Karl returned, getting blurted back out and into Sapnap’s arms, the cat wedged between them. 

Karl took a shuddering breath, and they were silent for a moment, the room filled only with breathing, before the cat latched it’s claws into Sapnap’s shirt and wriggled out from between them. It landed neatly on the floor, meowing, shaking out its fur, before wandering off. 

They both watched with bated breath, before Karl turned back to Sapnap. “It worked.” He said breathlessly. Sapnap swallowed, adrenaline beginning to pound into his beings, clawing up his throat in icy strands. 

“Yeah.”

Karl slid the goggles off up his face and blinked excited purple eyes up at Sapnap. “It worked.” He said, and took a moment to let that sink in. Tension buzzed in the air between them, and Sapnap’s heart started to pound. _They were really doing this. Sapnap was gonna try and time travel._

He took a breath - jittering on the inhale - just trying to force the air back into his lungs - as Karl whirled away and back towards his desk, rummaging through his things and slinging a bag over his back, shoving contraptions Sapnap didn’t recognise into his bag and scribbling things Sapnap couldn’t see into his book. He adjusted the strap as Sapnap drummed his foot against the floor. They were really about to do this. He wiggled his fingers, the pins and needles in his nerves poking him when they moved. 

Karl turned back around and wringed his hands. “Best not to overthink it, yeah?” He said, his tone trying to be light, but there was an undercurrent of nerves coursing through his voice, throat trembling. Sapnap leant across and gave his hand a squeeze, though his fingers did feel a little numb. 

“Yeah, let’s get this out the way.”

Karl took off his goggles and slipped them over Sapnap’s head, sitting on the edge of his nose. Sapnap shot him a glare but Karl either didn’t notice or chose to ignore it. 

“Hold on to me.” Karl instructed, offering an arm. Sapnap rolled his eyes, the goggles half-blocking his vision. He bit his tongue and mutely latched on to Karl’s side, cheeks flamed a hot red. “This isn't going to be pleasant, by the way.” He murmured. 

Sapnap tried to quell the anxiety that started to squirm in his stomach, and he nodded. “I’ll just hold on, yeah?” 

“Don’t let go.” Karl’s grip tightened.

Sapnap rolled his eyes. “Never.” 

Karl screwed his eyes tight shut, and Sapnap was quick to comply. A whooshing picked up through the room, buffeting in Sapnap’s ears even though they were completely underground. The sound continued to grow; a wind so strong it almost toppled him off of his feet. His grip on Karl tightened. 

“Hold your breath!” Karl shrieked over the wind, then that bright flash filled the void, Sapnap’s vision shot red, and then he felt like he was being pulled forward by an external force. 

“Karl-!” He said warningly, sucking in the largest gulp of air he could before they were both shot into the void, and everything went black.

Down in the icy depths, it was cold; an icy chill that reached into Sapnap’s body and wrapped with his very core. Its needle touch pushed him gently through the dark, but he didn’t have the energy to swim through it, his body trembling in shuddering bursts. 

He needed to swim, but this wasn’t water. this was something else that gripped him right, suspended him below everything. This wasn’t water, this gripped him from every side, it was too dark, too much of eternity. 

Sapnap’s lungs began to burn. _When did he last breathe?_ He considered opening his mouth, but he found he did not need to, and he felt a deep, primal instinct to not inhale. Breathing would bring no relief, and so he held on. 

He couldn’t panic, he couldn’t adopts to panic Panic wasted energy and energy was crucial to staying alive wherever here was.

Sapnap grappled with himself, clinging into the strands of his consciousness and allowing himself to float again. Don’t open your mouth, don’t move. If he moved, he would sink. There was this preemptive instinct that told him so, that gravity would drag him down further than he would ever recover from.   
  


He screwed his eyes shut against the inky black as convulsing shudders that wracked his frame, and Sapnap grit his teeth. He couldn’t feel his legs, it was like his very bones had been frozen. How long has it been? What was he waiting for? Mere seconds? Hours?

Something jolts through the dark, Sapnap could hear the movement, shifting the darkness that pressed around him like it was tugging and pushing against him, tearing apart his sense of up and down.

It was coming closer, whatever it was. A cold hand, like burning ice against his arm, wrapped tightly around him, he jolted against it in surprise, tiny pinpricks blossomed over his skin and suddenly Sapnap was getting pulled upwards. He felt himself break the surface of whatever was enclosing him. He let in a gasping, shaky breath, then lost consciousness as he was dragged back under. 

  
  
  


…

  
  
  


Karl knelt on all fours, arms trembling with the exertion of keeping him upright, crouched on the almost-familiar marble steps of the In-Between’s palace, and hacked up his lungs. Spit dribbled down his chin, but Karl didn’t care. He felt violated. This wasn’t supposed to happen like this. 

Panic bubbled in his chest, but Karl knew he couldn’t falter. Hesitate and Sapnap might get hurt. 

The In-Between was a halfway point, it was meant to be safe. Karl had never seen it intervene like that before, yanking him out of Sapnap’s grip and forward in time, not back. No matter how hard Karl tried to fight it and carve his own path, it was much more strong-willed today, aggravated to the core in a way Karl had never seen. It had sapped all of Karl’s strength to keep a hold of Sapnap and bring him here. 

_They couldn’t go back now; Karl didn’t have the stamina. They had to push on,_ _follow wherever the In-Between intended them to go._

Sapnap’s body lay, twitching, beside him, and with the last of Karl’s energy, he reached over and grabbed Sapnap’s arm, and pulled them back into the universe. 

  
  
  



	4. Ace of Diamond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they time travel. things don’t go as plan, and the future is horribly different from anything Karl imagined

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not beta read, if you see spelling mistakes then ignore them lolol
> 
> i cant write action that well plz forgive me ;-;
> 
> also as to what i listen to when writing it’s this epic sapnap playlist on spotify my bro made, sometimes i play philza in the background haha
> 
> content warnings  
> -  
> blood and violence, vomiting at the very start, just general sword shit and angst

There was something stuck in Karl’s throat. It’s the thing that woke him, jerking up, eyes wide in a primal instinct that he needed to  _ breathe _ , as his oesophagus squeezed and tightened up.

He turned onto his side and vomited, hurling onto the ground beside him, heaving shakily breaths between emptying his stomach. He kept going and going until he spat stomach acid. Karl didn’t dare lie back down until his throat was clear. Bile lined his mouth and tongue, but he just squeezed his mouth shut, flopping back as his skull hit the object behind him. 

_ Time travel had never felt so breaching before.  _

Karl blearily reached back above his head to figure out what he was leaning on, and shot up in disgust, so fast his head spun, when he felt the thing throb and pulse under him. He sat up, but the room was still rather dark. He rubbed his eyes so hard he saw stars, but still nothing. He had a headache, too, so it felt like his skull had shattered and the little shards had been shoved into the crevices of his brain. There was a deep exhaustion that clung to his bones in a way he had not felt before. 

He spun and reached out to feel his ‘pillow’ again. It was bumpy, and thrummed with a heartbeat, rough under his fingers in a distinctly familiar way. 

What had happened? One moment he was with Sapnap in their new kingdom, the next he was here? It was coming back slowly, ever so slowly, like the universe was teasing him and letting a only trickle of information leak out and pass him by. 

When his eyes finally adjusted, Karl glanced around the room again. It must have been a room, right? It was too unnaturally dark for him to be outside, there was no wind, but also there were no windows. He fumbled to his feet, hand on the sturdy wall beside him. 

His hand fell to the lightswitch. It was slippery under his trembling fingers. He smelt the metallic cling of coppery blood, and screwed his eyes tight shut once more at the sight that beheld him. Crimson bathed the walls, and he didn't know if perhaps it was the blood on the walls or on the light bulb or on the floor, but everything was bathed in a red tinge. Blood Vines stretched across the room like a map of winding streets, or perhaps a nervous system, a cacophony of tendrils that all seemed to be moving, ever so slightly, curling left and right in a non-existent wind. They were on the walls, across the floor like a scribble and even some curled up onto the ceiling. Some larger than others, big as tree trunks or as small as veins. And the smell. Of rotting flesh and burnt skin. It made him nauseous. He didn’t dare move in risk of touching any one of them. 

But what was worse was that this place also seemed familiar, the walls were nostalgic in a way, maybe if there weren't any of those bloodlines overrunning the place and all around him, he could have been able to tell where he was.

Through the half-light, he squinted at the bookshelf across the room, sagging with weight and age. That was also recognisable. It looked just like the acacia bookshelf he had in his old library-  _ oh, Ender. _

This  _ was  _ his library. He was in the future, where it had been overrun with…  _ blood vines.  _ The thought almost made him gag again, he swallowed back the bile that edged at the back of his throat with a furious determination. More vomit would only make him feel worse. 

There was a figure on the far side of the room; limbs sprawled out and so impossibly still he looked asleep, or dead.

The low ceiling’s lightbulb seemed almost like a spotlight now, hot on Karl’s skin as he scrambled over towards the figure. He was careful to not step on those damn vines, like he feared they might burn him. Perhaps his mistrust was not misplaced. 

He was met with raven hair and an unusually pale face, a bloody nose and a dirtied white shirt.

The name came faster this time. Perhaps it was having him here, real, in the moment and ever so alive that made Karl click the pieces together much quicker than he had in the past. 

“Sapnap,” He hissed, patting the man across the face. He got no response. “Sapnap!” He repeated, drawing his hand up and slapping him harder this time, the sound verberating around the room. The man shifted a little beside him, mumbling something, before his glowstone eyes met Karl’s, and he jerked up. Karl barely dodged out of the way of getting head-butted in the face. 

“What the fuck-?” He slurred, hand coming up to his face to remove Karl’s goggles, fingers coming away bloody as he then inspected his nose with one hand. It didn't look broken, but then again, Karl didn't have experience with broken bones.

His eyes lit up when they landed on Karl once again, as he propped himself up against the far wall. “Karl?” His voice sounded much more vulnerable than Karl had expected, and his throat closed up for just a moment. His heart squeezed.  _ I did this,  _ a quiet voice at the back of his mind accused. Bloodshot eyes stared him down. 

“Yeah, yeah, I'm here. Don’t worry.” Karl hurried to reply, squatting in between the vines and reaching out to grasp Sapnap’s hand. He didn't have the energy to squeeze it this time,his muscles felt lax and weak, opting instead to just let his presence be known. His body ached everywhere, every move sent pulses of pain down his muscles, like his nerves were constantly on end. 

Sapnap’s voice was croaky. “What happened?”

Karl gave a little shake of his head, forcing his voice out and willing it not to tremble. He was fine, Karl had been through worse. “Things didn't really go as I planned.” He admitted gingerly. “I tried to force my way through the Universe, but it kind of yanked me forward it’s own path, it took all of my strength to grab onto you before it pulled us both here.”

“...So you don't know where we are?” Sapnap said, eyes darting around the room and pressing his lips into a thin line to stop himself from gagging at the blood - it had to have been blood, what else could it have been? - that stained the walls. 

“This is my library, I know that for sure,” Karl said, fishing through his coat for his pocket watch. His hand was met but nothing but swathes of soft fabric. He must have dropped it into the jump. Unease rippled across his skin, followed by a muttered curse as Karl bit the inside of his cheek until it nearly bled. “I just don't know what year it is. But we’re definitely in the future.” Sapnap pulled himself to his feet, leaning heavily against the wall. 

Sapnap’s face twisted like he had eaten something sour. “This is the future?” He said warily, unimpressed. Karl also took the moment to glance around.

“Yeah.” He gave a dry laugh. “Not very helpful, but I’m sure everyone has it figured out, maybe they evacuated or something... We should go talk to my future self. I’m sure he could help us.”

Sapnap wiped the blood from his nose with his cuff, and shuddered. “So that was time travel?” He asked weakly. 

Karl felt his heart pang with sympathy, churning in his gut. “Yeah. Sorry I didn't warn you. It's not pleasant, but it should have only lasted a couple of seconds, but we were floating there for about ten minutes.” Guilt burned in his chest and crept up his throat like a hand that strangled him. 

Sapnap wrapped his arms around himself, his eye bags accentuated by the shadows that cross-crossed down his face. “Ten minutes?” His tone was soft. “It felt like days.” He blinked up at Karl, looking suddenly very vulnerable. Karl ached to encompass him in a hug, take them back home, but he knew he didn't have the energy right now, both mentally and physically incredibly drained. 

The best thing to do was find help, regain their strength, and then they could get back and recuperate.

“Thanks for getting me out of there.”

“I wasn't going to just leave you, Sap.” Karl said, maybe a little too much bite to his word because Sapnap turned his head away. Karl regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, stinging his lips. 

He was stressed near out his mind, he was in an unknown time, with a man that had just experienced probably a shit tonne of emotional distress and with these fucking vines near everywhere, they needed to get out before someone or  _ something  _ noticed them. It wasn't reassuring, to say the least. 

“I think you're bleeding.” Karl said before the words had truly processed in his head. There was a large circle of matted, damp hair in Sapnap’s scalp, and when Karl gently poked the wound, his finger tip came away bloody.

Sapnao turned around, cupping the back of his head. “Really?” He said lamely. “I can't feel it.”

_ Well that definitely wasn't good.  _

Karl forced the tremor in his fingers to still for a moment as he got to his feet, and offered Sapnap a hand out. “We can get you healing pots soon. First, I think we should get out of here.” He glanced over his shoulder. “This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies.” 

“Tell me about it.” Sapnap murmured, grabbing his hand and hauling himself to his feet, swaying a little before steadying. They began the journey back towards the entrance of Karl’s library, along the corridor that would lead them to the ladder up and to the exit. 

This place was so creepy, and Karl couldn’t tell if it got better or worse once he left that bloodstained room. His skin began to crawl as he hugged himself tighter. The blood vines splayed along the walls, each one getting thicker as they headed back along the passageway. The air was thick with must, and some sort of damp mould softened the wood that wasn’t covered in those crimson vines. 

Hand in hand, Karl lead Sapnap further down the corridor, the hairs on his arms standing on end, bending and weaving past the throbbing tendrils of vines that seemed to thrum every time Karl got closer. 

Sapnap’s warm breath blossomed on Karl’s neck like a campfire emanating warmth. It kept him grounded, every time panic started to seize his chest, Karl just had to focus on Sapnap’s strained breathing and the echo of his heartbeat in his ears and he was grounded once again. 

He managed to give Sapnap’s hand a squeeze. He wouldn’t forget this time. They were dancing on the edge of a knife and Karl couldn’t afford to forget the steps, to slip and cut them both. 

They arrived at a set of stairs, lined on either side with old books, snaking its way up towards a more inviting grey light that emanated from the top floor. 

Sapnap was the one to let go of Karl’s hand. He shot him a steady glance and pulled himself off the ladder, which was encrusted in dust and rotting wood. Sapnap’s diamond sword caught the light, and Karl wondered guilty when it had gotten scratched along the way in their journey.

Karl followed suit and peaked his head up over the floorboards. The vines hadn’t bothered to snake down the ladder, they had instead burst through the floor entirely. They were thicker here, and Karl screwed his eyes shut to fight back another wave of despair as he got to his feet. 

Cracked porcelain and glass was strewn across the floor like a sea, torn up armchairs and bookshelves that looked like they had been completely ripped apart. Karl blinked back his tears as he stood up and followed Sapnap across towards the exit. Future-Karl had a good reason for destroying the library, right? The glass that crunched under his boots left his questions unanswered. 

The sky was a hazy grey, that made both boys screw their eyes tight shut against the brightness, standing in the doorway. Karl squinted up against the clouds, using his free hand as a shield against the sun that diffused through the blanket of cloud. He looked around, and almost fell to the ground in shock.

The entire SMP - as far as his eyes could see - was completely covered in blood vines. Swaths of those throbbing tendrils, layers upon layers of them piling over one another like a pit of snakes. Some were as thick and as tall as houses, snaking up towers and destroying farmland, while others were small, couldn’t have had more than the diameter of a worm, but were long and stretching, wiggling their way through windows and under doors and swarming until there was no actual ground left to see. 

And the smell, oh Ender, the smell. It was worse out here, thick and stifling in the humid heat, the smell of sweat and feces and rot, of blood and metal and gunpowder. Karl closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed hard to fight back the vomit that pushed for attention at the edge of his throat. It left a bitter taste on his tongue. 

Karl couldn’t breath. The air around him didn’t feel like it was real, there was no oxygen inside it, like he was taking in empty lungfuls of air that did him no real good. 

“Hey, hey, hey.” Sapnap said gently, tugging Karl into his chest and nearly suffocating him. Karl didn’t mind this time, melting into the warmth and willingly inhaling Sapnap’s smoky smell. “It’s okay. We’re okay, yeah? We should go find some people, find help. It’ll be fine.” 

Karl drew back and wiped his snotty nose with his cuff. He nodded shakily. “Yeah. We should head towards the community house or something.” His skin burned with embarrassment. He should be the one offering Sapnap comfort, not the other way around. Karl was so  _ pathetic.  _

Sapnap’s gaze was heavy, but Karl brushed him off when he placed his hand on his shoulder, warm against Karl’s bright jacket. They began the trek over to the community house, and Karl ached to grab Sapnap’s hand. He really needed someone to guide him right now, but he couldn't. He was supposed to be in charge now, he was supposed to be in control. Karl was the one who had gotten them into this mess. He stuffed both hands into his jacket pockets.

The wind buffeted in Karl’s ears as they limped forward, avoiding a large crater that had burrowed into the ground and looked suspiciously a lot like a TnT hole, and used a free slab of wood to get a leg up and clamber over the large vine that blocked their path. It jolted a little under Karl’s weight and he winced. 

_ What the fuck had happened here?  _

A more prominent feeling of dread slithered up his spine when Karl realised that this place was utterly deserted. It looked like a complete ghost town. There were no signs of life, no twittering birds or barking dogs that usually made up the regular and comforting background noise of Kalr’s home. 

Sapnap seemed to notice it too, a dark look crossed his face as he looked out across the wreckage from their vantage point on top of the vine. His knuckles were white from where he gripped his sword. “We need to move, now.” He said sternly, and Karl hurried to agree, slipping down the other side of the vine and scrambling up the hill, dirt flying in his tracks. 

Karl didn't know what to expect when they reached the community house. Some sort of life? A note? A sign? Some implication of life would have been nice, but there was nothing. 

Old traces of scorch marks scattered the floor from that time Dream had literally blown up the first house on the server, but the bricks were strong and sturdy like the day it had been rebuilt - he remembered Purpled telling him that Puffy had been the one to rebuild it, but nothing implied life after that point, no new chests implemented inside, no fresh flowers - the tulips on the window-cill were long dead and shrivelled. 

The thing that set him on edge, however, was the way the vines seemed to stop when they reached the house, either turning away or stopped forming completely, so a vine-free box had been etched into the remnants of the ground and across the murky water. 

“Creepy, much.” Karl mumbled, as he went to kick a barrel that lay haphazardly on the side. The sound broke the silence, vibrated around them like thunder in an empty chasm and Karl couldn't help his flinch as his ears sharpened to the sounds around him again. Sapnap trekked mud up the stairs and for once Karl couldn't find it within himself to chastise him for it. He just watched him go. 

Karl sat down. He yearned for a book, his fingers itched for a quill, so that he may write down what was happening here before he left and never forget it, and  _ never let this happen.  _ This place looked like it had been completely abandoned, the ground permanently stained with lives lost and scarred with explosions, screams and wails of despair seemed to almost ring in his ears, just out of reach.

He brought his knees up to his chin and screwed his eyes tight shut, instead focusing on the sound of Sapnap upstairs, his heavy boots against the wood and his hands carding through the rubble. Once they were done here, they could get back to their town, their house, Karl’s library, and perhaps future Karl could offer some clues to the deviation of the server. Even more than that, Sapnap had a head injury, and they needed to find a safe place to rest and recover. 

The sound of footsteps right behind Karl broke his chain of thoughts. There was someone standing right behind him, and all at once Karl was back with himself, flipping onto his back to gaze up at the fellow who had interrupted his spiralling anxiety. 

Karl peered up through the light, and caught a flash of a green tunic and brown hair and large, curling horns. 

“Tubbo!” Karl scrambled to his feet, a wave of relief crashing against him, spo hard he almost felt dizzy. He opened his arms out for a hug. “It's so good to see you, man.”  _ So this place hasn’t been completely abandoned.  _

Tubbo narrowed his eyes. “Karl.” He said sternly. 

Karl stopped short, a confused weight settling across his brow. Where was Tubbo’s usual excited energy, the large smile that panned across his face and the deadbeat sarcasm and the sharp wit? 

“Hi?”

“What are you doing here?”

Karl guffawed awkwardly, hand coming up to scratch the back of his head. He hunched his shoulders. _ Had Tubbo always been this tall?  _ He let out a breathy laugh to break the crackly tension between them. He vaguely noted that Sapnap’s footsteps above them had gone still. 

_ Tubbo probably didn’t know he was here. If he did, he probably would have baited Sapnap down somehow  _

“It’s actually, like, quite a long story, maybe we could sit down, or you could tell me where everyone is, and then we could recuperate…” He wet his lips, struggling to think of something to say. “Where’s Tommy?” He asked lightly. “I swear you two used to be conjoined at the hip.” 

“He’s not here.” Tubbo said, deadpan. 

Karl swallowed down the horrible feeling in his throat and glanced around. “I mean, yeah,  _ I know,  _ but where is everyone, for real? It’s like a ghost town around here.”

Tubbo didn’t say anything, but Karl didn’t fail to notice the way his shoulders tensed, the way his hand rested callly on the hilt of his sword. 

“I’ve been so lonely, at this point. I’ll even take Dream.” That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Tubbo’s round face darkened. 

Karl trailed off and peered closer. His stoic face stared right back, devoid of his usual happiness. “Tubbo, are you alright? You're kinda pale, and I think there’s something on your neck…?”

His blood ran cold, like he had been doused in an ice bath. Karl cut himself off, snapping his jaw shut. 

Red, bulging veins snaked their way up Tubbo’s neck, reaching his jaw and then going deeper into his translucent skin, fading into pale cheek. His eyes were red.  _ The Egg. _

Karl opened his mouth to scream, Tubbo lunged at him. 

He wrapped his hand over Karl’s mouth and tackled him. His head slammed against the floor and he let out a shriek of pain through the hand around his mouth. 

The kid tried to pin his wrists to his sides, and Karl’s instincts kicked in. He brought his foot up and booted Tubbo back in the stomach, hard. 

He doubled back with a cough as Karl scrambled backwards, wincing as his back hit the brick wall behind him. Karl shifted through his jacket for his dagger, pulling out the cold metal and holding it in front of him as Tubbo wiped the blood from his mouth. 

“What the hell, man?” Karl said, albeit a little shakily. “What was that for?”

“Are you working with Dream and Tommy?” Tubbo shot back, raising his blade so it was in line with Karl’s stomach. The venom in the kid’s words cut Karl deep. Ender, he had never heard someone so  _ livid  _ before. 

He spluttered, mind reeling with the new information. “Tommy? Dream? They’re working together? Tubbo, I don't know what you’re on about.”

Tubbo eyed him for a moment, and Karl felt like a rabbit being sized up by a fox.  _ What the fuck happened here?  _ Instead of answering Karl’s silent pleas and open ended questions, Tubbo brought his sword up to swing down on top of Karl’s head. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Karl saw Tubbo’s face contort somewhere between shock and confusion and fury, so fast they were almost unrecognisable. He shut his eyes and focused on trying to get his lungs to breathe again, without catching and halting on the exhale. 

Everything was happening so fast it made Karl’s head spin, crackling with static. This was information overload, and he hadn’t caught a break since they had landed in the In-Between. 

He was tired, bone-deep exhaustion that settled over his bones like a damp mist over grass.

Karl shut his eyes and winced back into the wood, bracing for the worst. There was suddenly the sound of metal against metal in a churning squeak, and suddenly Sapnap was there,  _ Sapnap was always there for him,  _ his own sword raised against Tubbo’s swing. 

He diverted it to the left and took no hesitation to deliver a hefty kick to Tubbo’s shoulder. That kid and never really been a fighter, he stumbled back, mouthing Sapnap’s name with wide eyes, but it was clear Sapnap didn’t really want to hurt him. 

His kicks could break bones if he wanted to, let alone when he used his fire - Ender, his devil’s footprints were something else entirely -, but Karl would be surprised if Tubbo walked away from the fight with little more than a bruise. He was still a kid, after all. And Sapnap possessed a natural amount of basic empathy. 

Tubbo dived at Sapnap and tackled them both to the floor. Karl took a step forward to intervene, but was caught up when he heard shouts of surprise outside the house. 

Karl ducked his head out of the door, and felt himself pale.  _ Bad and Ant. Bad and And. They’re here, they’re with the egg and they’re here- _

“Sapnap-“ Karl’s voice broke as he called back haltingly. Sapnap wrenched the sword from Tubbo’s grip and slid it over to Karl’s ankles. “More of them are coming..”

Sapnap cursed under his breath, holding Tubbo down by the shoulders as he continued to writhe and snarl under him like some rabid dog.

Karl fumbled for Tubbo’s sword, the hilt slippery in his sweaty grip, the blood roaring in his ears. He felt sick again, but not with the turbulence of his unexpected time travel, this time he felt sick with dread. 

Bad and Ant, stood there oh-so-simply, side by side just like a week ago, when they had been harassing Sapnap for Karl’s whereabouts. Oh how times had changed, but simultaneously it felt like nothing had shifted at all. 

“They really shouldn’t see us, it could fuck with the timeline and our future-selves,” Karl hissed.

Sapnap shot him a half-hearted glare, but diligently shoved Tubbo to the side, wrapped Karl’s wrist in his long, bony fingers and broke into a run. Tubbo let out an undignified shriek behind them. 

More shouts, this time sharper, maybe more angry, echoed out behind them, but Karl paid them no mind, matching Sapnap’s pace stride for stride. 

There was a long winded, “Karl?!” teasingly shot from the remnants of the community house and it took all of Karl’s best efforts not to flinch. 

They flew down what remained of the prime path, soft and rotted underfoot, and scurried down the side of Eret’s castle, the stone worn and soft, the walls crumbling in some places and leaving little mounds of possibilities on the ground. Karl hurdled over them without flinching. 

It was cold in the shadows overcast by the stone structure, but Karl felt like he was burning. 

He could almost feel Ant’s breath on his neck, cool and puffing, and he sped his pace, ignoring the way his legs screamed for peace. Legs flying over the ground so fast he felt like he was almost flying, Karl’s chest heaved, the sweat on his chest sticking his sweater to his skin. 

He tugged Sapnap left, then right, never truly outrunning their pursuers but never getting caught. Ant’s claws snagged on his jacket a couple of times but that only made Karl slam his heels harder into the ground.

“Duck!” A new voice came, british and rough, Karl glanced up ahead of him, where a figure stood on the wall. The telltale stance of a bowman forced Karl to stick his head down. 

A whooshing arrow zoomed past Karl’s cheek, barely missing his skin, and landed somewhere in Ant. The cat-hybrid let out a screech of pain and slowed to a stop; Bad in toe. Karl felt blood dampen his jacket, but he didn’t stop running.

The figure’s long shadow cast down into Karl as they ran parallel to the wall, diving under a large vine until they reached the turn, and spun around the corner.

Sapnap paused by the bottom of the wall, bending onto his knees and heaving low breaths. 

Karl leant against the wall, his chest tight and wheezing. He flexed and unflexed his fist, squinting up at the wall as the figure scrambled down it, digging their axe into the wall to cushion the fall. 

Tommy stood before him, blue eyes bright with exhilaration, his pants matching Karl’s as the two stood, eye to eye, catching their breaths. 

“Hey, guys.” He said awkwardly. 

Sapnap wasted no time raising his sword again, but his grip was shaky with exhaustion. “Are you with the egg?” The pyromaniac huffed between breaths, lugging himself to his feet. 

Tommy just shook his head, a gleam of sweat glistening in the cloudy day. His lips twisted up into a grim smile. “Not at all.” He replied. “Feel free to check, or something.”

And Karl did, grabbing Tommy’s face and pulling it left, then right. Tired grey-blue eyes stared straight back, meeting his wary purple. Tommy’s neck was clear of veins, and he looked as he did last time they had met- but-

Karl let go of him. “Where are your wings?” He asked quietly. 

Tommy blinked back, adrenaline fading from his eyes. His face looked tired again now, Karl noticed, the frown lines on his face looked like chasms and the bruise he sported on his jaw seemed to grow across his pale skin. 

“You missed a lot.” He offered Karl and Sapnap a weak smile, flicking between the two like he was unsure of who he should actually look at. “C’mon, before those _ egg people and Tubbo _ ,” His voice broke haltingly for a moment. Karl thought it was interesting that he distinguished between Tubbo and the rest of the Eggpire. Tommy cleared his throat before continuing. “Come back. You’ve been gone for a long time.”

“How long is long?” Karl asked, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets, crunching his shoulders up and inhaling the only scent of home. 

“Yeah,” Sapnap agreed. “Did we die or something?”

Tommy paused. “I mean, I last saw you about a year and a half ago? You tried to flee the server and I don’t know where you went afterwards. I don't know about Sapnap, I can’t remember.” He said quietly. 

Karl licked his lips. Wow, that was… a lot. 

“Don't worry now, though. We have a safe place.”

He turned and started to walk away, without his usual confidence, his back painfully empty now that Karl had noticed what was missing. Sapnap grabbed his hand, and the two exchanged a glance, a nod of silent communication, and then they started to 

follow. 

“Who’s we?” Sapnap said tiredly, rubbing his face with his spare hand. 

Tommy turned and walked backwards, studying him. “What happened to you?” He said. “You’re bleeding and shit.”

“Long story.” Sapnap mocked, and the two exchanged a long glare. Tommy turned back around. 

“You’ll be safe with us,” Tommy murmured, continuing like Sapnap’s jab had never happened. “It’s like the only safe place left on the server.”

Sapnap pulled Karl towards him. “Are we sure we can trust him?”

Karl shrugged. 

“So, you can’t sense his intentions with your magic power or some shit?” Sapnap murmured. 

Karl giggled a little. “It’s  _ time travel,  _ Sapnap,  _ not mind reading _ .”

Sapnap stuffed his hands into his pockets and rolled his eyes, cheeks aflame; for just a moment, this felt normal, natural. 

“And, besides, you’re kind of injured. It’s better, and probably safer, align ourself with someone we know rather than the Egg, right?”

“I guess.” Was all Sapnap said, and then he was quiet. Karl gave him an affectionate nudge, before speeding up. He cleared his throat to get Tommy’s attention. 

“Who’s us?” Karl asked, wide eyed. 

Tommy chuckled, but there was no real humour in his voice. He glanced over his shoulder at the pair, looking suddenly older than ever. His eyes were haunted, and stormy, like he was containing a sea within. He might have been drowning.

“Me and Dream and Wilbur. We’re like the only people left.”

Karl felt like the floor just dropped from under him. 


	5. Jack of Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His eyes were still that golden yellow, but more vivid now. It was the first thing Tommy had noticed when Wilbur fell into his arms, gasping for breath and blinking up at him, a heartbeat thrumming through his wrists and he was so god awfully alive. Everything about him now stuck out to Tommy, the flush of red on his hollow cheeks, the blink of his eyes lids, even the ever constant wheeze of his lungs. It was so overwhelming. And Tommy didn’t know why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait

Tommy didn’t know what to think. 

To be frank, Tommy never really knew what to think. He usually just followed other people and their advice. But this time particularly stumped him. 

Karl and Sapnap had been long gone from the server last time Tommy checked, and now, oh so suddenly, they decided to show their faces around again and had the audacity to almost get killed by those Egg Bitches? 

Lame. 

Should he be angry? Angry that they had left the server when Tommy had needed them most, deserted their friends and family to save their own necks? Should he grill them of their previous whereabouts, or maybe mug them of their shot and leave them for dead? It was certainly tempting.

Should be be relieved? Relief that they had managed to escape this hellhole, and then came back for Tommy? Perhaps this was a rescue mission, but then again, wouldn't they have bundled towards him with gleaming swords and glowing army with promises of safety, of refuge on their lips?

Tommy snorted to himself. Who was he kidding, no one would come back for him. Dream, maybe, even after all of the shit he pulled, but not Tommy. 

He watched Karl and Sapnap out of the corner of his eye, leading them down the ladder to one of Dream’s underground bunkers, one of the _only_ ones that hadn’t been overrun with blood vines yet. The pair just seemed so out of it. So unnatural in their surroundings. Sapnap walked like he thought every step would fall from under him and Karl looked like he was on the edge of passing out. It was almost laughable if not dangerously concerning with how close they had come to capture. 

What happened to them?

It wasn’t his place, Tommy chastised himself silently. They had every right to keep secrets to themselves. He would just show Dream, and maybe then he would find out what was happening. 

The passageway was narrow and had been dug with haste. Supporting wooden beams were placed at irregular intervals, many bowing under the weight from the ground above. Piles of dirt and rock had already collapsed in places, but it was still possible to scramble through. 

Tommy’s eyes were adapting to the dark, but he was still stumbling in small pools of water that had filtered through the earth. Searching with an outstretched hand, he pushed further down the winding escape route. 

“How long is this tunnel?” Sapnap called from behind him. 

“It’s just a bit further,” he said as he peered into the dark.

Tommy heard Karl slip and steady himself against the muddy wall. “Do you know or are you guessing?”

“Of course I know,” Tommy snapped back in a resolute tone.

Karl’s foot found another pool of hidden water, this time flicking up into the back of Tommy’s trousers. “Sorry, it's just that you sounded a little bit vague,” he said, shaking out his sodden boot.

“Well if you want to go and get slaughtered by the egg bitches, be my guest.” Tommy snapped, but there was no real intensity behind his words. He didn’t have the energy. “Don't blame me when they turn your brain to mush or slit your throat.”

“Lovely.” Karl mumbled under his breath. Tommy chose to ignore his sarcasm, and continued walking.

After multiple tracks through this entrance, there were dips in the mud where footsteps had worn it down and reached stone, but that also meant it flooded with water whenever it rained. The tracks suddenly became steeper on the descend ton, and Tommy pressed his hand to the wall to stop himself from slipping. He didn't want to look like an idiot. 

“I like your plan, I just wanted to know how long I was going to be digging around in the dark like a mole.” Sapnap said drily.

“We’re almost there,” Tommy replied, and he was right. Over a large mount of mud and gravel, a slither of light could be seen under a large spruce door. 

Tommy quickened his pace up to it, reveling in the light that almost hurt his eyes after floundering in the dark for so long. He pulled out a key - tied to a string around his jeans so that he would never drop it - and slid it into the lock. It made a satisfying click, and then swung open.

Tommy was met with a wave of warmth, in which he almost melted. Lanterns danced around the corners of the round, spruce and stone room, and the fire that blazed in the corner seemed to crackle a little louder upon his entry. He stumbled forward, weariness finally taking hold of his muscles and sat down in the middle of the room.

“Welcome,” He said drily as Karl and Sapnap looked around. Tommy tugged off his boots and socks, squeezing the excess water from the materials. Sapnap darted a little closer to the fire, dropping his sword on the way as he knelt beside it, whilst Karl chose to plop himself down beside Tommy and take off his own shoes. 

“And you said this was Dream’s cabin?” Karl asked.

Tommy felt irritation prickle at the back of his skull. _Dream this, Dream that, it was always about Dream._ He kept his mouth shut and nodded, unstrapping his bow and quiver and laying them beside him. The bruise in his wrist twinged as he did so, and Tommy winced. Dream was staying in the bunker less and less, but that also meant that, when he was around, he was getting harsher and harsher. Not that Tommy couldn't handle it, though. He wasn't _weak._ This wasn't like exile, because this time, Dream was just as in the dark as he was. There was no need to cry. He was strong. 

Karl was studying him, and Tommy flushed crimson under his stupid violet gaze and turned away. His gaze was just so bright, smooth with a certain level of calm despite the calamity he had just been forced through. Tommy hated to admit it, but he was a little jealous. He wished he could keep his head on intense situations instead of screaming and running and only making things worse.

He wished he could be happy again, light without the weight of heavy tension on his shoulders and the fear that every day he might die. 

“Y-You, er-” Karl stuttered, taking a breath and swallowing loudly before starting again. “You said that, umm, Ghostbur was around here? I thought he passed on once L’Manberg got blown up?”

It took all of Tommy’s best efforts not to flinch, from both the comment about Ghostbur and L’Manberg itself. Ouch, two birds with one stone. He kept his expression stony. “I didn't mean Ghostbur. I meant Wilbur.” He said simply, a little worm of satisfaction burrowing into his gut at the confused look on Karl’s face. It was nice to have the upper hand. Didn’t happen very often. 

_Wilbur._

The name still sounded strange on his tongue, like he needed to think about pronouncing it bedford he actually said it, studying the words in his mind before he forced them out into the world. It was ironic to think he had been mistakenly calling Ghostbur ‘Wilbur’ for such a long time, but now that Wilbur was here, it was so much harder to look him in the eye, say his name, act like he was _real._

Sapnap made a sound of surprise from beside the fireplace. Tommy glanced over at him and gave him a tired smile. His lips didn't seem to work properly, whether from the cold or just exhaustruon, he didn't know. 

“Yeah, Wilbur.” Tommy felt the beginnings of a headache squeeze at his temples, and he rubbed his forehead. Karl waited for a reply but Tommy wasn’t about to give him one. How could he even properly explain the situation? 

It would be best described by someone more equipped to handle their questions. Wilbur himself? Dream? He didn’t want to bother him with his shit, but maybe if Karl asked it would be alright? Something twisted painfully in his stomach and Tommy curled his toes up in his damp socks. 

He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but was cut off by a new voice that cut into the conversation like a hot knife through butter, making Karl and Tommy jump in sync. 

“Did you say something?” 

Wilbur stood at the door. It had been about two years since he died and got resurrected but Tommy still found him so very foreign in a way he couldn’t place. 

He wasn’t Wilbur, not the one from his childhood, but he wasn’t the Wilbur from Pogtopia either. He toed the line between light and dark, danced across the fence between good and evil. Perhaps he had always been like that, and maybe Tommy had just never noticed it before. 

His eyes were still that golden yellow, but more vivid now. It was the first thing Tommy had noticed when Wilbur fell into his arms, gasping for breath and blinking up at him, a heartbeat thrumming through his wrists and he was so god awfully alive. Everything about him now stuck out to Tommy, the flush of red on his cheeks, the blink of his eyes lids, even the ever constant thrum of his heartbeat. It was so overwhelming.

He remembered helping Wilbur to the bed and letting Dream fix him up from the necromancy. Tommy couldn’t be in that room anymore, he felt too big just standing there. Like he just got in the way, like he was a nuisance.

He was pretty sure Wilbur saw the way he left after his resurrection; just like that. Tommy didn’t forget it either, something akin to guilt stirred in his stomach. He pushed it down. 

It didn’t help that Wilbur didn’t look well, so to speak. His cheeks were hollow, his skin stretched tightly across his face, almost translucent in its whiteness. Dark bags hung heavy under his eyes and his hair was tangled. 

Tommy was just about used to it so that he didn’t jump out of his skin and scream every time he saw Wilbur. Karl, on the other hand, opened his jaws and shrieked, Sapnap jumped back as well, almost head butting Tommy in his haste to scramble back. 

Wilbur’s yellow eyes went wide, glancing between Karl and Sapnap and Tommy, again and again so fast it looked like he was spinning in circles. 

Karl clutched tightly at Tommy’s arm, and he hissed as he pressed against a bruise. 

“Uh, hi,” Wilbur said with that stupid, familiar smile, awkward and goofy in a way that was so comforting but set Tommy on edge. This wasn’t Wilbur, he had to remind himself, but it wasn’t Ghostbur either. Wilbur died with L’Manberg and Ghostbur passed on after Tommy and Tubbo’s triumph after Doomsday.

This was some undead creature that looked like his brother, someone who toed the line between mortality and death and had danced with the grim reaper and had come out on top. 

Tommy ducked his gaze. “You’re awake.” He said quietly. 

Wilbur hummed, like this was the most normal thing in the world. “I felt better this morning and I didn’t really want to lie around all day.”

Tommy huffed. “Well, since sleeping beauty is awake, you can go and help Sapnap. He’s got a nasty wound at the back of his head. I’ll help Karl.” 

Wilbur’s eyes went wide for a moment - that was the longest Tommy had ever spoken to him in one go - and he turned to Sapnap with a pleasant smile. Tommy loathed how at ease he was, how normal he was acting like this situation was. Any and all of this was _far from normal and they needed to treat it as such._

“Hi, Sapnap, Karl,” He nodded to each in turn. “Fancy seeing you here. Tommy rescue you, I presume?” His voice spoke words of honey, but instead of comforting, his charisma set Tommy on edge. It was the same charisma that whispered poison into Tommy’s ears back at Pogtopia, the same voice that screamed for justice before he blew his own nation sky-high.

Maybe it was because Tommy knew what Wilbur was capable of, how manipulative he had been, how far. had fallen from being Tommy’s once just leader, that it made him feel vaguely sick. 

Or maybe Tommy was just tired of having the wool yanked over his eyes. He was grown up now, technically, almost 18. He wasn’t stupid anymore. And he hated the way Wilbur thought he was the same Tommy from before the war, like Wilbur was the same Wilbur from his childhood. They had both changed, their tunes didn’t harmonise anymore. And Wilbur was ignoring that. 

Karl spluttered for something to say whilst Sapnap just stared dumbfounded. It was almost entertaining.

“Wilbur? You’re alive?” Sapnap asked. 

Wilbur checked his shirt, tugging it like he was checking he was actually there. “I mean, I think so.” No one laughed, and Wilbur’s smile became strained. 

“How- What- I…?” Sapnap trailed off, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly like a fish. 

Wilbur rolled his eyes comically, and offered out a hand. “C’mon, man, let me take a look at that bump on your head. Let’s get you sat down and fed, okay?”

Sapnap let himself be led out of the room with a quietness that didn’t seem normal. 

Once they left the room, Tommy untensed a little and got to his feet. He didn’t offer Karl a hand up, instead just gesturing for him to follow with a mute nod of his head.

Karl followed him down the corridor like a lost puppy and for a moment Tommy marvelled in being taller than him. He brought them to another room, this one without a roaring fire, made completely of stone. Tommy sat Karl down firmly in a seat to the side of an island counter and threw open the doors of a cabinet to the left to look for a first aid kit. 

“How did you get through the portal?” Tommy asked curiously after a minute of silence. He glanced over his shoulder. “Didn’t those Egg Bitches shut it down or something?” 

Karl let out a strained laugh, but Tommy didn’t pick up on how forced it sounded, focused on snagging the small black case from the back of the cupboard. 

“Yes, but they turn it on now and again to check it still works. Me and Sapnap, uh, managed to get through when they turned it on. That’s why they chased us.” Tommy missed the way Karl cringed, opening the kit and studying its contents. 

“Really?” He mumbled in a half ditch effort to keep the conversation going. “That might be handy information for later.”

Karl chuckled again, and Tommy knelt beside him. His eyes were hard as he stared Karl down. 

“I’m going to check you for injuries, tell me where you hurt. If you broke a bone, I’m not gonna reset it or anything. That shit is gross” He said sternly. 

“Nah, only that I hard on my back when Tubbo tackled me, and my wrist hurts a little.” Karl admitted. “I’m not as badly injured as Sapnap. I think Tubbo cut him.”

Tommy’s fingers juttered for just a moment where he was feeling Karl’s wrist for sprain or damage, before he continued.

“Did he attack you unprovoked?” He asked quietly. It still hurt to think about Tubbo. He had been one of the survivors of the whole Egg thing when they had first made their assault, he and Tommy had run away together, before everything went to shit. 

It had been short but not necessarily that sweet, before the egg beckoned Tubbo away and turned his mind to mush. Tommy was determined to find a way to save him. It was _Tubbo,_ after all. Strong, brave, smart Tubbo who wouldn’t let himself get killed by an egg of all things.

Maybe there was still good inside him. Inside of all of them. Maybe Tommy could fix this. 

_No._ He told himself firmly. _Like Dream said, what was done was done. He shouldn’t linger on past attachments once they’ve been lost. It’ll only hurt him._

“Who, Tubbo?”

“...Yeah.”

Karl was quiet, pondering his answer. Tommy unwrapped a piece of gauze and began strapping it around Karl’s wrist. 

“No,” He said finally. 

Tommy jerked up. “No?” Something warm flickered in his chest, before he extinguished it painfully. There was no need to celebrate, nothing had gone well. It didn’t change anything. 

“I don’t think so, at least. I asked him where you were, androgen he asked about you and Dream and I didn’t know what he was talking about, and then he got out his sword and…”

Tommy dipped his head. “I understand. Sounds a bit fucked up on your part, though. Clearly a sensitive topic.”

Karl rolled his eyes goodnaturedly. He held up his good wrist in a girl scout salute. “I promise to never bring you up to Tubbo while he’s still under Egg Control.”

Tommy huffed a laugh. He finished wrapping Karl’s wrist and studied his face. “Right then. Does anything else hurt?”

Karl shook his head. “‘M just tired.”

He did look tired, didn’t he? His muscles were lax, possibly from just having some down time with Tommy and warming up? but maybe because he physically couldn’t keep them tensed anymore. His eyelids were droopy, too. What was strange was how young he still looked. He didn’t look like he had aged a day from the day he had fled the server. Funny. He must have had one hell of a skin routine. 

Server hopping was very tiring, if Tommy remembered correctly. “Come on, Karl Jacobs, let’s get you to bed.” He slung his arm around Tommy’s neck so the older man could use him as a crutch. “You can ask more questions once you’ve got some rest, okay?” 

Karl didn’t seem to have the energy to complain or object, he leant into Tommy and let him guide him back down the corridor. Phantom pain twinged in his back and Tommy felt all wrong all over again when Karl’s arm brushed one of the stubs on his back, a stub where one of his wings had been. 

  
  


…

  
  
  


_Tommy was blinded by pain, his vision laced with white. He arched his back and let out another wail. His wings felt like they were on fire, one hung limply down his back while the other flapped and flailed sporadically._

_He dug his hands tighter into the fabric of the man who was carrying him. He was warm, and smelt vaguely of cinnamon and stone._

_“Hang in there, Toms,” The voice murmured, and through the hazy pain that clouded his mind, Tommy wanted to believe him when he said; “You’re going to be fine.”_

_Until he was jostled a little too harshly and he cried out all over again as white hot pokers pierced through his feathers and into the very bone of his wings. He tried to beat furiously at the chest that enclosed him but his arms were sore and weak and he didn’t have the energy to do anything at all, let alone fight and escape someone. What was happening to him? Why did it hurt so much? Where was Philza?_

_“Lay him down on the table, here,” Another voice instructed. Tommy let out a low whine. That wasn’t a good voice, it was cool and calm and deeper possessed something akin to nervous apprehension, or maybe even excitement. He clung onto the sweater tighter. It smelt like Wilbur. That was nice. Tommy liked Wilbur, didn’t he?_

_The table was cold and harsh and Tommy wanted to thrash against it. It felt like it was burning against his hot skin and why couldn’t he go back into the arms they were warm, they were safe-_

_Someone rolled him onto his side and in his static filled daze he vaguely recognised the feeling of someone tugging at his wing. The broken one._

_He let out a raspy scream through his shuddering gasps for breath, vocal chords worn down and his mind even more so._

_“How is it?” The low, british voice asked again._

_A beat of silence. Tommy didn’t dare open his eyes._

_“Not good.” Said the other voice again. Dream._

_“We might have to amputate.”_

_The other man didn’t seem to like this - was it Wilbur? - he let out a strangled, angry noise and Tommy flinched his head back, away from both of them from where they towered over him. He didn’t like this. He couldn’t move without pain and he felt helpless. He probably was helpless._

_“Amputate? It’s just broken, though. I’ve seen Phil fix worse without help.” Wilbur’s - it was definitely Wilbur - voice rose an octave._

_“I don’t have a choice,” The other voice snapped. “We don’t have much time, he’s going into shock. I’m sorry that I don’t have much ‘experience’ with wings. Amputating both might hurt him less than attempting to fix it.”_

_“Can’t we use a regency?”_

_“No. If he drinks one now the bones will set all wrong.”_

_The other voice was quiet for a while. Tommy missed the way it smoothed out the atmosphere in the room with a steady flow of firm protectiveness._

_“So, you’re saying you might set the bone back wrong and that could kill him?”_

_“Yes,” Dream said firmly. “I know how to amputate, I don’t know how to fix broken wings. I’ll probably have to do both, so it doesn’t feel uneven.”_

_Wilbur heaved a sigh. “...Fine, as long as you’re sure it will hurt less in the long run.” Wilbur said finally. He sounded pained. “Amputate. But you’re going to deal with the repercussions. And make sure it doesn’t hurt him.”_

_“I will.” Dream promised, tugging a little on Tommy’s wing again, bringing it up to examine it closer. A pained hiss escaped through Tommy’s gritted teeth but Dream paid him no mind._

_What Wilbur didn’t know was that Dream did know how to fix broken wings. Tommy had taught him in the early days of the server. He had shown him on poor birds that had been injured that Tommy helped nurse back to health. He had known exactly what to do to treat the wound. He chose not to._

  
  


…

  
  
  


“Wow.” Sapnap mumbled. A pained smile graced Wilbur’s lips. “That’s a lot.” Sapnap caught it in the mirror across from them. Wilbur dabbed antiseptic at the wound on his head again and Sapnap hissed. Did he have to be so harsh?

“I know.” Wilbur hummed, placing the cloth down on the table beside them and went to the brewing stand across the room. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Sapnap asked. Wilbur pinched a piece of nether-wart between his tweezers and didn’t look up. 

“How is Dream?” Sapnap’s voice wavered when he asked, and he hated himself for it. Dream was a criminal, a murderer, an abuser, he shouldn’t care how he feels, he didn’t need to. Dream had shown him very obviously how he didn’t care for Sapnap at all, care about anything but power and control. 

Wilbur paused, tilting his hair forward so it covered his eyes. “He seemed genuine when he revived me, like he was entertained with how these events played out - Techno let him out of prison, after all, but that was at the start of _all of this_.”

His voice was thicker now, and a rush of apprehension slithered down Sapnap’s spine like silk. He wanted to hold Karl, to hug Karl, for Karl to tell him everything was going to be okay and explain his dry safe and detailed plan as to how to get them out of this mess, but his skin also crawled at the idea of touch. He didn’t know. 

“He was…” Wilbur took a shaky breath, “He was different after George left. George was with us, for a little bit. Dream liked that, I think, he said it felt like the start of the server again. But one day, George just packed up and left without a word.” Wilbur sighed. “Don't really blame him.”

Sapnap squeezed his hands into a fist. It hurt, to know that George must have left just like that. Knowing future Sapnap had done the same made his throat dry. Such a hot, angry betrayal. Dream would probably kill him on sight when they met next. 

“He got meaner,” Wilbur continued, oblivious or uncaring of Sapnap’s inner turmoil. “He killed as many of the egg people as possible and gave up on the evacuation plans. Tommy had to get everyone out.”

“Every single citizen?”

Wilbur nodded. “It was crazy. That was when Ranboo was still around, though. The Egg people seized control of the server portal just after everyone has gotten out. I guess George went with them and I never noticed.” He let out a cold laugh. 

Sapnap frowned. “Ranboo was with you?” He liked that kid. Little disjointed, a little odd, but he was honest. He reminded Sapnap of the man Dream used to be. 

Wilbur grimaced. “Yeah. He was a good kid. Dream treated him a little weirdly, like he was a dog. One day, if i remember correctly, Dream sent him out and he just didn’t come back. We found his body a few days later.”

A heavy, hot pressure pounded at Sapnap’s skull and he leant forward to press his palms into his eyes to stop them from stinging. “How many of our friends are dead?” His voice was shaky. “Sorry for asking so many questions.” He added quickly. 

Wilbur rolled his eyes. “It’s fine. Not like there’s any other real way to make conversation while you’re as clueless as you are.”

Sapnap frowned as Wilbur returned with the bottle of regen, swirling the insides as it glowed a dull red. Sapnap’s gut churned at the idea of eating or drinking anything, but he dutifully took small, tepid sips of the drink, sour and sweet and so overbearing on his tongue.

Sapnap was cold, but he started to sweat anyway. He pulled his sleeves up and rubbed his hands up and down his arms to try and gain friction. 

Ender, Wilbur must think him pathetic. Sapnap felt nauseated and disgusting, and he was probably seen as a coward in Wilbur’s eyes. Someone who abandoned the server in its greatest time of need. He had abandoned his friends.

A small part of him told him that maybe he had a good reason to flee, maybe someone had threatened him or he visited another server and couldn’t get back. He just _didn’t know._ And he _hated_ that. Because Wilbur didn’t know either. 

Cat yellow eyes met warm orange, and Wilbur leant back against the counter. “Uhh, Niki and Jack managed to flee, Phil too. And George, of course.” He said, turning sharp at the end. Sapnap frowned. _Phil was his dad, right? Tommy’s too? Yikes. He couldn’t imagine Bad abandoning him like that._

Sapnap screwed his eyes shut. _Or maybe he could imagine that. This Bad wasn’t his Bad, though. This wasn’t the man that tucked him into bed every night and helped him tame his fire. The Egg had rotted him from the inside out._

Wilbur continued on, and Sapnap hates that he was eager to listen. It was horrific news, news that made him sick and dizzy and sore, but it was news nonetheless. Sapnap hated being left in the dark, hated it when others pulled the wool over his eyes. 

That was how he found out about Karl’s time travel. He had stuck his nose where it wasn’t wanted and just look where that had ended him up now. Stuck in a future of a horrific timeline with his fiancé, a traumatised child, a traumatised adult and Dream. 

“Ranboo and Puffy are dead, so is Techno.” Wilbur counted them off his fingers like this was some sort of game to him. There was a twisted shadow under Wilbur’s face under the careless casualness he forced onto his shoulders. Sapnap knew how to sense tension, to sense when someone was going to snap at him, and Wilbur was ticking every box. 

“Everyone else is ‘Eggy’.” His words grated against Sapnap’s eardrums. 

Sapnap tucked the rest of the regen pot into his pocket and stood up. He hid his face in the crook of his elbow. The softness of his hoodie was soothing if this wasn’t the most irrational place to be calmed. 

They stood in silence for a moment. Wilbur coughed. “So, uh, where did you go?”

“Hmm?”

“After escaping the SMP.”

Sapnap’s mind scrambled for an answer. “Back to Hypixel.” He blurted, suddenly wishing he and Karl had come up with a backstory they could say without, you know, mentioning time travel. “Karl used to work there and he managed to get his old job and keep us supported.”

Wilbur hummed in approval and Sapnap felt like he had just dodged a bullet. 

He needed to sleep, to write his thoughts down. Both. He suddenly felt tired, more so than he had in a while. Static pricked at the bottom of his skull, his brain felt like it was swathed in cotton. He was cold, like he had been in those awful moments in the middle of Karl’s travel. He was too exhausted to shudder, though. He opted instead to lean heavily against the counter. 

“You alright, mate?” Wilbur softened. He reached out, and Sapnap took a jerky step backwards, and everything reeled around him. The buzz of a beetle’s wings picked up in his ears. 

“Yeah, uh,” Sapnap cleared his tgoat. He kept his eyes on the ground. “I think I just need to sleep.” _Yes. He could sleep and then he could go home. Karl would take him home._

_This was an awful nightmare._ Sapnap was drowning, he was flailing his limbs and pinching himself in a desperate attempt to wake up, to seize control of the situation. To remind himself that he was okay, that they were going to figure this out. 

His vision continued to swim around him. This was dangerous. If he got too sleepy, too light headed, Sapnap could set the whole building on fire with his lack of control. 

“Okay, okay.” Wilbur took him by the arm. “You can sleep. We have plenty of rooms.” He looked down at Sapnap, who was leaning most of his weight upon him, using Wilbur like a crutch. Something horribly twisted painfully in Wilbur’s gut. 

“You’ll be okay.” He murmured, and Sapnap didn’t know if he were speaking more for himself or for Sapnap. He didn’t really care. 

  
  


…

  
  
  


George swung down the rungs to the basement of the Town Hall of Kinoko Kingdom. He had just been looking for a book, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him. _Sapnap hated camping. Would he really go on a 3 day trip with Karl despite the bugs and the insomnia and the fire hazards?_

George pushed his glasses up into his hair. Maybe he didn’t know Sapnap as well as he thought he did. He pushed the horrible thought away with a shake of his head and a tug down of his blue sweater. 

His boots thudded against the wooden flooring, the room was lit in a dull candle, melted down to the wick’s base. The room was rather bare, lacking any chairs or bookshelves or chests. It was purely the vertebra of the entire house. It’s foundations. A spider spun it’s web into the corner of the room and a scattering of papers spread across the floor. Karl and Sapnap were long gone. 

It looked abandoned, and George had to manually slow his breathing. Sapnap had told him in advance. He wasn’t leaving forever. A camping trip, a honeymoon. The pair deserved it, he told himself, he knew how hard Sapnap had been working, how different Karl had been. 

It was fine. 

It smelt like fresh paint and crushed berries; fairly pleasant. As George stepped further into the room, his boot kicked something metal across the room. He jumped at the rattling sound it made, and followed it to the far wall. He crouched beside it. 

A frown creased George’s smooth forehead. The only thing that sat in the cage was a still cricket, no chirps or trills escaping it, no twitch of legs. 

Sapnap despised bugs, loathed them. He couldn’t hit them with his sword or light them on fire. It was why George bought them a cat when they were younger, so it could eat all the spiders and insects that lurked in the community house. He smiled vaguely. He had liked that cat. He was glad he had gotten another one. 

He nudged the box again. The bug rattled inside the metal lifelessly. The sound felt like thunder in a grand canyon on his ear drums. 

It was dead. 

George frowned, wrinkling his nose. Weird.

**Author's Note:**

> chapters 1-4 were pre-written so expect those to appear in the next week 
> 
> i dont really care about kudos and comments but please some comments are so fucking funny so if you have anything funny or nice to say feel free


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